


Thawed

by Untherius



Series: The Sun-Bearer Chronicles [8]
Category: Brave (2012), Frozen (2013), Tangled (2010)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 13:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 43,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2654306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Untherius/pseuds/Untherius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elsa Agtharsdottir, Drottning Arendelle, had originally planned to hole herself up in her chambers following her Coronation festivities.  Oh, how things could change!  If she'd learned anything from the chaotic events following, it was that a blessing could be mistaken for a curse and that love overcomes fear, lessons she'd need in the years to come.  But little did she or Anna know that life was to become quite complicated indeed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Throughout this work, I often use Norwegian and German alternatives for various titles, depending on the speaker or POV. For more, see:  
> http://heraldry.sca.org/titles.html
> 
> '-ska' is Old Norse meaning 'a woman from' the indicated place.

❅ ❅ ❅

Drottning Elsa Arendelle leaned against the wall bounding the bridge between the Palace and the rest of the city, gazing out across Arendelle Fjord. Thin ice crusted the stone, ebbing and flowing like the surface of a frigid ember. Thoughts and emotions rolled through her mind, some building back on themselves, others flowing out through her body and into her environment as crystalline water, and then dissipating into the summer sunset.

It had been a very long day. Actually, it had been three. Hadn't it? It had sure felt like one, each hour blending into the next like the fractal crystals flowing out from where her hands rested on the cold stone.

That afternoon had been incredibly relaxing and liberating. It had left her feeling downright giddy with the realization that she could let her power out without terrifying everyone and, more importantly, without hurting people. All those years, she'd ignored just how badly she'd really wanted to leave her chambers, to live the life and childhood that should have been hers. She'd allowed that desire to be overwhelmed by her fear. She'd just proven to herself that it needn't, never had needed, be that way. Yet she could feel her fears and worries trying to creep back into her mind all the same.

First and foremost was that mess of a fjord. The ship that had bobbed up underneath her, Anna, and the others rode low, the waterline barely her own arm-span below the main deck. Other vessels listed severely, floated capsized, or were marked only by protruding masts. Still others had gone down over deeper parts of the fjord. Gently bobbing flotsam littered the water's surface.

Of the several dozen vessels that had sailed to Arendelle, most of them specifically for Elsa's coronation, only a few remained seaworthy. Several others could be made so with minor repairs. Most of the rest were either in need of dry-dock, or were complete losses. And, like it or not, Elsa had been responsible for it all, which meant Arendelle had to fix it, whatever the cost.

Presently, she became aware of someone else standing nearby. She glanced over to see her cousin, one Prinzessa Elsa Corona, leaning on the thick railing a few arm-spans to her left, also looking out toward sea. After a few moments, the Coronska Princess met the Arendellska Queen's gaze and smiled.

“It's beautiful, isn't it?” she said. “The sun, I mean. I never just look at it anymore.”

Elsa regarded her cousin for several moments. Look at the sun? Directly? Surely she'd misunderstood.

“Confusing, I know,” she continued.

Elsa nodded. “Which part?”

The other woman chuckled. “All of it.”

Elsa sighed. “You have no idea.”

“Don't I?”

“Look, Elsa, it's...complicated.”

The Coronska chuckled again. “That's my line,” she said lightly. “And please, call me Rapunzel.”

Elsa slightly raised an eyebrow. “The vegetable?”

Rapunzel nodded. “Or you could call me Firewalker, if you'd like.” A pause. “It's a long story. And like you said, it's complicated.”

Elsa smiled weakly.

“You're still afraid,” said Rapunzel.

Elsa nodded. “How'd you know?”

“I know a few things about fear. I'm not all that unlike you. And my story is not all that unlike yours, either. Only it's a few chapters ahead.”

Elsa furrowed her brow. Was her cousin saying what it sounded like she was saying? “What do you mean?” she asked.

Rapunzel laughed. “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Elsa chuckled. “That's an understatement.”

“Not remotely.”

Elsa considered her cousin. “The responsibility aside, I have no idea what to do with it.”

“You will, once you find your balance.”

“Balance?”

“Elsa and Elsa!” Elsa recognized that squeal. She turned around to see her sister Anna trotting up to her.

Rapunzel waved. “Good evening, Anna,” she said sweetly.

Anna giggled. “Good evening!” She gave Rapunzel a hug, then trotted over and gave Elsa a firmer hug. Elsa hugged back. It felt good and she didn't want to let go any more than she had when Anna's frozen body had returned to life that very afternoon. She hadn't realized just how much she'd missed and craved human contact, especially her sister's. She just hoped she wasn't overdoing it.

Anna pulled back, looked at Elsa, then turned to look at Rapunzel. “Um...Elsa?”

“It's Rapunzel,” said Rapunzel casually.

“The vegetable?” said Anna.

Rapunzel giggled. “That's exactly what your sister said. And in exactly the same way, too.”

“Oh.” Anna looked at Rapunzel for a few moments. Then, “You're warm. Are you sure you're feeling well?”

Rapunzel chuckled. “I'm fine,” she said dismissively.

“Then why,” said Anna, “is there steam rising up from the railing?”

Rapunzel glanced down and Elsa followed her gaze. The film of ice radiating over the stone ended abruptly where Rapunzel's hand rested on it. From around that hand billowed a cloud of steam. “Oh, that,” said the Coronska casually, then shrugged. “It's just me being me.”

“How are you doing that?” Elsa asked.

“It's complicated,” said Rapunzel. “Suffice it to say, cold doesn't bother me any more than it bothers you. Back to the fear.”

Elsa exhaled. “Yes, that. I don't know what to do about that.”

“People tend to fear what they don't understand. To some extent, you feared their fear and what they might do because of it. Today, everyone saw quite conclusively that they don't need to be afraid of you and you proved to yourself that you don't need to be afraid of you either. I can still count on one hand the number of people in Arendelle who aren't even remotely intimidated by what you can do. But you're making progress.

“You experienced, in a single day...more or less...both extremes. You began it at the tail end of years of holding it all in. When you let it all out...basically, you exploded. You must find balance. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. The Dark Side are they. Now repeat it.”

Elsa cocked her head.

Rapunzel nodded expectantly. She really was serious.

Anna nudged her. Elsa chuckled slightly. Her sister really could be quite incorrigible...and contagiously optimistic.

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. The Dark Side are they,” said Elsa.

“Good.”

“No, it isn't,” said Anna.

Elsa looked sharply at her sister. What was she thinking? Here their cousin was, trying to help and...words seemed to fail. “What?” said Elsa.

“It's _not_ good!” Anna repeated.

“Anna,” said Rapunzel.

“Fear? Anger? Hate? Suffering? The Dark Side?”

“It's all true,” said Rapunzel flatly.

“It's all _dreary_!” Anna insisted. Rapunzel started to talk, but Anna continued. “Cousin, I don't think you understand.”

“Actually, I think I...”

“I'm not finished.”

“Anna,” said Elsa.

“No,” said Anna. “Look, we've both been shut away for...far too long. It's been dark and depressing. What happened this afternoon is the first ray of sunshine we've seen in...well, for the first time in forever. We need to hold onto that. We need it desperately! I love my sister. And she loves me. I don't want to focus on the fear.” She looked right at Elsa. “Do you?”

Elsa shook her head. Her sister had a point and a very good one. Elsa wasn't sure where she was going with it, but she was pretty sure she was about to find out.

“So let's not!” said Anna. “Let's focus on the love! Because love overcomes fear! It has to! Because...”

Elsa felt a smile spread across her face. “Anna, you're a genius!”

Anna blinked. “I am?”

“Love overcomes fear! I love it!” She watched a smile spread over Anna's face, too. She started to laugh and Anna soon followed. She hugged her sister tightly.

“You know,” said Rapunzel, “I love it, too! What I said is still true, of course.”

Elsa rolled her eyes. “Of course it is,” she said facetiously.

“No, I mean it,” said Rapunzel. “I've been there. I've done that. I've bought the tee-shirt.”

“The what?” said Anna.

“Uh...never mind. The point is, fear does, in fact, ultimately lead to suffering. And from what I've seen and heard both from you and others, you know exactly what I mean. But you both also have a point. As a woman thinks, so is she. You have your new mantra.”

“Mantra?” said Anna.

“It's a phrase you repeat to yourself on a regular basis. One that helps you mentally center.”

“Like what Father used to tell me,” said Elsa. “He'd say 'conceal, don't feel.' And he told me to repeat it all the time.”

“Precisely,” said Rapunzel. “Now, say the new words every morning, every evening, and every time you feel your fear trying to take hold. You will eventually find your balance.”

“How do I do that?”

Rapunzel grimaced slightly. “It's...something you have to feel. I can probably help you with it, just as someone else once helped me. I watched you earlier today. You were, albeit briefly, happy and relaxed and having fun. Which I guess is something you haven't experienced in far too long.”

Elsa sighed. “Well...there was the other day, when I built my ice palace up on North Mountain. But otherwise...” She exchanged a glance with her sister. “...no, not so much.”

“Hold onto it.”

“Father...” She felt a surge of grief well up. She shoved it back. “...Father always told me not to feel.”

“I disagree. I suspect he didn't understand your power. I think he was motivated by fear, just as you have been. I saw it in my own father when I returned from my exile and several times since. Tell me, Elsa, have you grieved your parents' deaths?”

Elsa shook her head.

“You need to do that. It won't be any fun, but you have to do it if you're to heal and you have to heal if you're to move on. Otherwise, you'll fall back into your spiral of despair. Power or not, nobody wants that. You must also grieve the childhood years you lost to your isolation. That might take longer. My father still mourns the time he didn't spend watching me grow up. He doesn't say it, but Mama does. Besides, I can see it in his eyes...and behind them.

“No, you have to feel. It's part of finding and maintaining your balance. And I think you'll greatly prefer it to the alternative. It's very important to take a holistic approach.”

“Holistic?” said Elsa. She was starting to think her cousin knew far more than she should about, well, far more than anyone her age had any business knowing.

Rapunzel chuckled. “Everything's interrelated. It's all bound together and has made you who and what you are. Whatever it is that gives you your power is a part of you, just like your arm or your liver. You've been trying to ignore it, but you've done so to your own detriment. It's like ignoring your leg or your stomach. You have to become comfortable in your own skin.

“Moreover, you also have a support group.” Rapunzel smiled at Anna. “It's small, but it's very important. I had people there to help me when I was feeling overwhelmed. You don't know how many times I nearly ran back to my tower the first year after my homecoming, or how often I considered running away after that. Each time I had someone who loves me come alongside and make me do the necessary things I wanted to avoid.

“Your sister loves you dearly. But you already know that. And her Intended loves the both of you. But I'm sure you know that, too. Like my supporters, they won't give up on you until they're dead. And in your sister's case, not even then.” Rapunzel leaned closer and smiled. “And if you shut her out again, I will personally sail back here and burn your eyebrows off.”

Anna giggled. Elsa couldn't help but join her.

Rapunzel laughed. “You think I'm joking?”

“Aren't you?”

“Not remotely,” said Rapunzel, her lips still turned up in a smile. The woman seemed to be enjoying herself far more than she should. Elsa wondered what else was happening behind her cousin's eyes.

Elsa exhaled. “How do you know so much about all that?”

“Like I said, I've been through it. Otherwise, it's complicated. Inside each of us live two wolves, constantly fighting. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, ego, and fear. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, and truth.”

“So,” said Anna at length, “which one wins?”

Rapunzel's smile expanded into a grin. “Whichever one you feed!”

“Do you ever stop smiling?” Elsa asked as the three of them turned toward the Palace.

Rapunzel shrugged. “From time to time.”

Anna giggled.

“Your Majesty? Your Highnesses?” The trio turned toward another voice. One of Elsa's retinue...bother, she knew she should have paid more attention to the newer members of her staff. But then, she'd originally planned on shutting herself back inside her suite immediately following her coronation, which would have rendered all those positions temporary and her familiarity with them somewhat moot. “Dinner is ready,” the woman continued.

“Thank you,” said Elsa. “I'm sorry,” she added after a moment, “what's your name again? Things have been...interesting.”

“Inga, your Majesty,” she said, curtsying.

“We'll be right there, Inga.”

Inga curtsied again and bustled off.

“Join us, Rapunzel,” Anna blurted to their cousin. She looked at Elsa. “She...is welcome, isn't she? I mean...”

Elsa lightly grasped her sister's arm and smiled. “Of course she is.” She added to Rapunzel, “I like you, cousin. And I think we'd both like to get to know you better...as a friend, even. Besides, I've been shut up for far too long and you're both right, I need to get out more.”

“Please say yes,” Anna added.

Rapunzel grinned. “Of course!” she squealed. “Besides, otherwise I'd be out here eating the wildlife.”

Elsa cocked her head. “The...the wildlife?”

“Long story,” said Rapunzel soberly. Then she smiled again. “Maybe we'll have time for me to tell it.”

“We'd love that,” said Anna.

The trio drifted off toward the castle. Elsa noticed several people detach themselves from the opposite railing and fall in behind the Royals. Ah, yes...more retinue. Hers, Anna's, and Rapunzel's. She sighed.

“How am I going to get used to retinue,” she wondered aloud.

“Let me know if you do,” said Rapunzel, “because I still haven't.” Rapunzel's stomach growled. She cringed. “Sorry,” she said.

“Drottning Elsa?” said a small voice from behind her.

Elsa stopped and turned around. A little girl stood there, half-hidden by one of Elsa's retinue. “Y...yes?” said Elsa hesitantly.

Elsa's retinue reluctantly parted and the girl curtsied. Elsa smiled, then clasped her hands in front of her, gazing expectantly at the girl. “And what's your name?” Elsa asked. She had no idea how to talk to children.

“Yngvildr Sturlasdottir, your Majesty,” said the girl.

“Good evening, Yngvildr,” said Elsa, as good-naturedly as she could.

“You're pretty,” Yngvildr blurted.

Elsa blinked. She hadn't been expecting that. Then again, she had no idea what to expect from children. She'd read everything in the Royal Library, including some material on human development. But that had been a year ago and only because she knew either she or Anna...probably Anna...would be the one to carry on the Royal line and one or the other of them would probably need to know something about children. But apparently there was a disconnect between what was in the book and dealing with an actual child.

“Um...thank you,” said Elsa. That was another thing. Elsa didn't think of herself as beautiful. Come to think of it, Elsa really wasn't sure what she thought of herself. She was just...Elsa. Elsa the Ice Princess and now Snow Queen. And quite probably the most dangerous person in the world. Yet a little girl stood before her, adoring and unafraid.

Yngvildr took several steps forward and held her arms out reaching for Elsa.

Elsa blinked. The girl just gazed back. The moments seemed to stretch into forever. Elsa finally knelt down, reached out, then paused just a few fingerwidths from the girl's hands, and hesitated. Before that afternoon, it had been ages since Elsa had actually touched anyone. Should she?

The look on the girl's face pushed Elsa off the fence. She closed the distance and briefly clasped Yngvildr's hand. The girl's face lit up. Then she abruptly lurched forward and caught Elsa in a body hug.

Elsa stiffened, unsure what to do. She'd hugged Anna a few times earlier that day. But Anna was...Anna. Love overcomes fear...love overcomes fear, Elsa told herself. She forced herself to wrap her arms around Yngvildr, returning the hug. Doing so felt surprisingly good. A smile spread across her face, a smile fed by the hope rising up within her. She felt her own body relax and that felt even better.

Elsa held Yngvildr for a few moments before releasing her. The girl beamed. 

“I really like your dress,” she said. “It's as beautiful as you.”

Elsa giggled. “You think so?”

The girl nodded emphatically.

A shadow approaching from behind the girl turned into a man and a woman. Elsa looked up into their concerned faces. At least, that was how she thought they looked. Confusion...a little fear...uncertainty, perhaps? Were people's faces always so hard to read, or was that yet more fallout from her lifetime of isolation?

Elsa decided to fake it...again. She rose to her feet, clasping her hands as before. “Sturla, I presume?” she said to the man. It was little more than an educated guess, though the girl's resemblance to the woman was obvious enough that she was probably her mother, which meant the man was probably her father...or perhaps an uncle.

“Yes, your Majesty,” said the man, bowing politely.

“Your daughter is delightful,” said Elsa amiably.

The couple blinked. “Th...thank you, your Majesty,” said the woman, also bowing.

Elsa wasn't sure about the bowing part. It was true people had been bowing to her all her life, at least on those rare occasions when she'd accompanied her father during one meeting or another. It was also true that everyone had been bowing to her since the moment she'd emerged for her Coronation. She knew all that came with the territory of being Royalty. Yet there was something in the manner of Sturla and his wife that made Elsa a little uneasy and she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

The couple stepped forward and Sturla placed his hands on his daughter's shoulders, directing her gently, yet firmly, away from Elsa.

“Why is your dress cold?” Yngvildr blurted.

“Yngvildr,” said her mother, “that's impolite.”

“No, no,” said Elsa, “I'm not offended.” She leaned over slightly and looked into Yngvildr's eyes. “It's made of ice,” she said.

The girl giggled. “No!” she laughed, in clear disbelief.

Elsa smiled and cocked her head. “You don't believe me?”

The girl shook her head vigorously, still giggling.

Elsa laughed. Who knew interacting with a child could actually be fun? She shrugged.

“Yngvildr,” said Sturla, “really we should be going.”

“We...we apologize, your Majesty,” said the girl's mother.

Elsa shook her head. “No need to apologize.” Apologize for what?

“But...but our daughter...she...”

“Oh, for the love of all that is sacred and holy,” blurted Rapunzel from behind Elsa. “Stop stammering and stop groveling!”

The ensuing silence was deafening. Elsa slowly turned from the slack-jawed faces in front of her and looked at her cousin. She blinked...and blinked again. Rapunzel met her gaze unwaveringly.

“It is just,” said Sturla, “that we saw...after your coronation...your Majesty. And the storm...well, they said that was your doing.”

Elsa turned back to Sturla. She cleared her throat. “We're terribly sorry about all of that. The last several days have been very chaotic for all of us. Circumstances are not as I'd anticipated.” She let a slight smile curve her lips. “Although I would like to think those circumstances are vastly improved. As for the unfortunate turn in the weather, I give you my word that it won't happen again.”

Elsa nearly flinched. She'd just apologized to one of her people. Her parents the former King and Queen had been good people and good rulers, but she'd never once seen or heard either of them ever apologize to anyone. It suddenly hit her that she'd quite possibly set a precedent and made a promise all at the same time.

Would she be able to keep that promise? She had no idea. The stakes were high, that much she knew. Failure was not an option. But how? Just focus on the love? She supposed that would have to do, at least for the time being. She smiled again.

To Elsa's relief, the family bowed again and retreated. She exhaled heavily, then spun around. “Rapunzel? What was that?”

“People shouldn't be afraid of you, cousin,” said Rapunzel. “They should love and respect you.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Not that I have a problem with that philosophy. It was the one my parents had. But it sounded to me like you were commanding my people.”

“Well,” said Rapunzel sheepishly, “it works pretty well in Corona and...well, you were all floundering. But you're right. I overstepped my bounds and I'm sorry. It's just that I can see where this could go and...Elsa, you and your people stand at a crossroads. I can see which road you should take and it's nearly beyond my ability to resist shoving you down it.”

Elsa considered her cousin for a moment. “You do realize I'm quite possibly the most dangerous person in the world, don't you?”

Rapunzel laughed. “No, no.” Her laugh subsided. “Actually, I believe that dubious distinction belongs to me.”

Elsa and Rapunzel all but glared at each other for several moments. Elsa's attention was broken by an object passing repeatedly through her vision. She blinked, and saw that object become Anna's hand.

“Uh...Elsa? Rapunzel? Can we not argue? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I'd feel a lot better after some dinner.”

Elsa and Rapunzel both looked at Anna. Elsa felt a smile spread across her face. “Anna, you're a life-saver. What would I do without you?”

Anna shrugged as the three of them and their retinue again turned toward the castle.

All three women giggled as they strolled. Her own shoes clicked on the stone, Anna's boots thumped, and Rapunzel's bare feet padded. Their retinue made dull clopping sounds with their own sensible footwear. They really were quite the assemblage.

It would have been obvious to anyone bothering to look at their faces that they were cousins. But it stopped there. Between Elsa's single, white braid, and crystalline-ice dress, Anna's twin auburn braids and woolen skirts, and Rapunzel's orange-brown pony-tail and short linen tunic, Elsa couldn't imagine any place she could have gone to see such a diversity of appearances.

“How do you walk in those things, anyway?” Rapunzel asked.

Elsa stopped and stuck a foot out in front of her. She turned it sideways, light glinting off the high-heeled ice slipper she'd fashioned up on the mountain. “Not sure, really.” She glanced at Rapunzel's bare feet. “How do you stand going around barefooted?”

“Habit.” Rapunzel tittered. “Besides, shoes hurt. Mama made me try what had to be every foot-covering ever devised and they all hurt, every one.

“Let me tell you, though, the arguments Mama and I have had over that alone are worth writing a saga or two. 'Princesses wear shoes,' she said. 'Why?' I said. 'Because they do,' she said. Back and forth, back and forth. We eventually agreed to disagree on the subject. Especially after she saw me walking over snow, ice, hot sand, sharp lava, and everything in between entirely barefooted. Between you and me, I'm pretty sure she still thinks I'm just being difficult.”

She lifted a foot to show tough-looking calluses.

Elsa and Anna both whistled softly. “That looks like shoe leather!” said Anna.

“Near as,” said Rapunzel. “Admittedly, stubbed toes are a bit of a problem. And dropping things on bare toes hurts like crazy. I once had a falling object cut off a pinkie toe. Do you have any idea how agonizing that is?”

Elsa reflexively looked down at Rapunzel's feet. All her toes were still there. She laughed.

“It wasn't funny at the time,” her cousin retorted.

“All your toes are still there,” said Anna flatly.

“No,” said Rapunzel, “they're all there again. It grew back.”

“Toes don't grow back.”

“Mine do.”

“And your fingers, too, I suppose?” asked Anna incredulously.

Rapunzel held up both hands. “I've cut off at least one joint on most of my fingers. Kitchen accidents, mostly. It's complicated. Let's just say that while I love baking, I otherwise shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a kitchen. Especially not when knives are involved.

“Still, I can literally count on one hand the number of times I've worn shoes...ever.”

“Your coronation, your wedding, and...?”

Rapunzel laughed. “Mama insisted I wear shoes to my Princess coronation, but I kicked them off at the last minute. I let her think I was going to wear them to my wedding, even though I never intended to do so. Which I didn't. And I shall do so again to my coronation as Queen. May that be many years from now.”

“Rapunzel,” said Anna, “I think you just might be the second-most interesting person I've ever met.”

Rapunzel tittered. “Second?”

“After my sister.”

The comment made Elsa feel warm inside. She could get used to that. She looked up at the wall as they passed through the gate. “Balance, you say?”

Rapunzel nodded.

“Will it be difficult?”

“Probably.”

“Will it be worth it?”

“Definitely.”

❅ ❅ ❅

Prinzessa Anna Agtharsdottir strolled arm in arm with her sister across the south wall of the castle, their cousin Rapunzel sauntering casually on Anna's other side. The light from whale-oil torches hung about the courtyard below and through a few windows nearby gave just enough illumination to see. A steeply-pitched tile roof blocked their view of the outer fjord.

For the first time in forever, she actually felt happy, truly happy. It made her smile. She paused and looked up at the expanse of stars overhead.

“They're beautiful, aren't they?” she asked, more of a pondering aloud.

“They are,” replied Rapunzel. “Though I never just look at them anymore.” She pointed upward. “See that red star in Orion?”

“Betelgeuse, isn't it?” asked Elsa.

“Ja. It has two other names, though. Its astronomical designation is Alpha-Orionis. But it's also called Krakanen. What we can't see from here is that there are five other stars orbiting it, stars just like our sun.”

“The sun's not a star,” said Anna. “It's...the sun.”

“Yes, it is,” said Rapunzel. “It looks like an orange, only a lot brighter, more than one hundred times the diameter of Earth, far hotter than anything you've ever experienced, and with flame licking off of it.”

Elsa furrowed her brow.

“No, it doesn't,” said Anna.

“Trust me,” said Rapunzel. “It does.” She cocked her head. “You're familiar with the work of Copernicus, Harriot, and Galileo, aren't you?”

“Copernicus, yes,” said Anna. “And Galileo...I think I heard something about him and the Spanish Inquisition.”

“Well, they're all correct, by the way. The sun is, in fact, at the center of the Sol system. Among other things. And I know that because I'm the world's leading authority on the sun.

“So, like I said, the sun is, in fact, a star and all stars look like that. It looks so small because it's ninety-three million miles away. And the people on a world orbiting one of those suns call theirs Lirosh and Alpha-Orionis they call Krakanen. Not many people know this, but in every star dwells an energy being that drives its nuclear fusion.”

“Nuclear fusion?” said Anna.

“I'm beginning to think,” said Elsa, “that you know a lot of things you shouldn't.”

Rapunzel chuckled. “You're more right than I think you realize,” she said gravely. “Anyway, many stars are larger than the sun and a few are smaller. It's complicated. As for how and why I know what I know...”

“Let me guess,” said Elsa. Anna couldn't see her sister's eyes in the darkness, but she was pretty sure she was rolling them. “It's complicated?”

Rapunzel pulled a sturdy frying pan from a stiff pouch hanging at her waist. She twirled it casually by its sturdy, nearly-cylindrical handle. “Extremely,” she said, then added, “Oh, and one more thing...”

She took a deep breath. “Evasive pattern Picard Delta Six!” she shouted.

What did that mean?

Before Anna could wonder much more, Rapunzel swung the pan around behind her head. There was an immediate _PING_. Something dark, and possibly long and skinny, cartwheeled through the air over the trio with a high-pitched swishing sound.

“What was that?” Anna asked.

“Arrow,” said Rapunzel, even as she whirled around.

“Who's...” Anna didn't finish her sentence before Rapunzel's frying pan connected with something dark, the impact producing a dull banging sound. A large, dark object fell onto the tile walk with a muffled thud.

“Don't just stand there,” said Rapunzel, as she ducked something shiny that whipped through the air where her head had been, and arced the pan underhanded. It connected with something else. A strangled voice rose out of the dark.

Rapunzel planted her foot on a dark shape and shoved. “What part of evasive pattern Picard Delta Six didn't you understand?” The form made a dull thump on the stones.

Another form flew toward them through the air. By then, Anna began to recognize the forms as people clad in black. That one held over its head something long and thin that glinted in the light from below.

Rapunzel raised her pan and shed the blow. A metallic sound rang out, sparks briefly lighting up the night.

“All of it?” said Anna.

“It means,” Rapunzel grunted as she tucked a shoulder under her assailant, “we're under attack, by Grapthar!”

The person rolled over Rapunzel and fell cartwheeling to the courtyard below. “On your six!” said Rapunzel, already spinning to meet several more figures. Something that looked like fire erupted around Rapunzel's frying pan. “ _CO-RO-NAAA!!!_ ” she bellowed, her voice rising like the winds that Elsa had driven some days before. She rushed to meet the on-comers, fire erupting in random places all about the courtyard and surging in erratic directions before dying and reigniting. All the while, the flame surrounding Rapunzel's pan left trails of fire through the air, sounds of metal-on-metal and metal-on-person echoing off the walls and overlapping one another to blend into a cacophony Anna scarcely could have imagined.

A dark blur caught Anna's attention. “Elsa!” She pointed.

Her sister whirled around. A dense flurry erupted from her. Ice crystals refracted the torchlight, splitting it too much for Anna to see what was happening. She heard a muffled cry from the other side of Elsa. She stepped back and looked at Anna. “Cousin's right,” she said, her jaw clenched.

Elsa turned back around and thrust out her right hand. Ice erupted from it and flowed riverine across the floor. Anna saw another shape go down. Then something whooshed past her ear, and another, a third stinging her lobe with what she could only describe as a cold, sharp fire. “ _ELSA!_ ” Anna cried.

She felt Elsa's arms wrap around her, her weight pulling both of them to the tiling. Anna felt a rush of cold and everything went dim. Tinging sounds echoed all around her, the occasional orange flash diffusing through what Anna guessed to be an ice shell, as the two of them hunkered down, clinging tightly to one another and trembling.

At one point, a loud _BANG-CRACK_ shook the small space, hammering her ears as though her own skull were the anvil. She'd never known that a simple sound could feel like an ice pick in her head.

Anna lost all track of time. At one point, a bright yellow light appeared somewhere outside. It lit up the whole ice shell so well, Anna was sure the castle must have been on fire. But Elsa didn't seem to notice. She felt tears well up in her eyes, heard her sister quietly crying. Vague, back-lit shapes moved beyond the wall of ice, accompanied by muffled sounds of fighting, of metal on metal, and the occasional scream.

Eventually, the sounds and light died down, leaving only a persistent and annoying ringing in her ears. Then darkness and near-silence, only her and her sister's rapid breathing echoing closely around them.

❅ ❅ ❅

Princess Merida of Dunbroch leaned on a railing outside the room she shared with her mum. It sure had been nice of Queen Elsa to extend her hospitality to visiting royals. There'd been several in attendance.

Her and her mum, of course. Princess Elsa of Corona and her new husband Eugene. Prince Hans of the Southern Isles, who'd been arrested for attempted regicide and a failed hostile takeover bordering on acts of war. James of England, Henry-IV of France, Philip-III of Spain, Christian-IV of Denmark, Feodor-II of Russia, Honore-II of Monaco, some of them kings, others princes visiting in their fathers' steads. And that was just the beginning! Merida had completely lost track of the German and Italian states.

Not every country had sent representatives, but there had still been far more ships and in a wider range of classes than she'd ever have imagined. And the sudden onslaught of ice had sent at least half of those ships to the bottom of the fjord. That alone had caused some rather severe headaches and for that reason as many visitors as possible had been granted rooms in Arendelle Castle.

Dusk had fallen barely an hour before and Merida still couldn't sleep. It figured. A Princess was supposed to rise early. While she still didn't like it, she knew there would come a day when she'd _have_ to rise early if for no other reason than to get everything done that needed doing, especially if her father ever actually managed to unite all the clans of Scotland under Dunbroch rule, something her mum insisted would be necessary in order to address the ever-increasing pressure from England. Fine, but that presupposed she could get some bloody sleep.

She gazed out into the darkness. The moonless night wrapped around her almost tangibly, the only light coming from a dozen whale-oil torches mounted on columns around the courtyard below, a few burning around the middle and upper levels, and the occasional greenish flush from the northern lights.

Almost everyone had gone to bed, including Merida's mum. Only the sounds of gently splashing water in the fountains below and a few footfalls and low female voices somewhere on the uppermost level across the courtyard broke the silence.

Merida thought she could hear something else. She wasn't sure what, though. Whatever it was, it made her hair stand up on the back of her neck in that certain way that also made her skin crawl. Silently, she slipped back into her room, tip-toeing across the floor in her bare feet. She retrieved her bow and arrows, then crept back to the small balcony before stringing it and nocking an arrow.

She hoped she was just being a mite paranoid. The recent ice storm had left everyone on edge. What danger could there possibly be in Arendelle? The place wasn't exactly a hotbed of political intrigue. Yet that normally quiet voice in the back of her mind had never been wrong and it was screaming at her. No, there was something out there.

Merida peered into the darkness, being careful to avert her gaze from any of the mercifully few light sources that would have so easily killed her night vision. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Then she saw it.

A dark shape, visible as a different shade of black against the rest of the blackness, moved down from a rooftop. Then another. And another. Merida relaxed her vision, focusing only on movement. She counted at least a dozen of the shapes. While she was no stranger to the world of the Fey, she was quite sure the shapes were the figures of people and she was even more sure that anyone sneaking through the night like that was up to no good.

She tightened her grip on her bow and string, drawing to one-quarter. Then she held and waited to complete her draw. It wouldn't do to let fly before any first strike. That would have been a political nightmare and besides, her mum would never have let her hear the end of it. No, if there was to be violence and possible war, she must not, under any circumstances, be the one to start it.

She didn't have to wait long. From across the way, in the same general direction of the soft voices, other sounds, those of metal on metal and something thumping solidly against something else drifted across the space. Then a cry went up from a female throat. “ _CO-RO-NAAA!!!_ ”

Merida knew she should have paid more attention to global geography and it reminded her of yet another thing about which Mum had been right. Maybe she'd have remembered had there not been so bloody many introductions over the last few days. In any event, that call sounded suspiciously like a battle cry.

Merida drew to her ear, searching the darkness for her first target, watching for the dark figures. Suddenly, a bright yellow flame flared to life. She forced herself to avert her gaze, lest she completely kill her night vision. But something yanked it back.

The fire, a small one, remained steady and wrapped around a small object. From that distance, Merida didn't have a clear idea of what it was, but a person, possibly the same woman who'd bellowed the name of Corona, held it and began to swing it around like a weapon. Stranger still, the fire behaved more like a will-o-wisp than an actual flame.

As she watched, the fire-bearer laid into one of the black-clad people, dull thumping sounds drifting across the space between them. Then a few other fires sprang into existence all about, fires that moved as though they had their own will. Merida had even less of an idea of what those were than she had about whatever it was the woman from Corona wielded. She was even less sure it mattered right at the moment. What mattered was that even though the fires had killed her night vision, they also lit up the night well enough that it didn't matter so much.

Merida chose her first target and loosed. The smack of an arrow hitting flesh was all too familiar. She nocked another arrow and targeted another...and another...and another. Each arrow found its mark, sometimes drawing a scream, sometimes a grunt, sometimes nothing at all but the dimly-seen movement of a person slumping to the ground or falling off a roof or over a railing.

She was almost glad she'd tasted battle before. Spilling her first human blood had been an intensely unpleasant experience, one that had impressed upon her just why every culture had some sort of prohibition against killing other people.

The woman with the fire seemed to be holding her own, which was impressive, the fire thing notwithstanding. That made prioritizing targets a little easier. She dropped a few more. Then someone else's arrow bounced off the stone next to her. Bloody hell.

She searched for its source. A small flame erupted in a pin-prick, one that seemed to be coming straight toward her. Then it was gone, moments before something hard bounced painfully off her shoulder then landed on the ground with a tinkling sound. Another moment later, a few other objects landed at her feet.

She knelt down, fingering them. She felt a bodkin arrowhead and several bits of something charred, yet still warm. An arrow shaft, one that had apparently burst into flame mid-flight.

A flare of fire caught her attention. It turned into a figure wrapped in flame, arms flailing, screams rising out of the night, then falling, then abruptly going out.

A loud _BANG_ shattered the darkness, bouncing off the walls, and rattling anything and everything that could be rattled. Merida flinched back both from the sound and from a bright flash of light at one end of the opposite upper walk. The light momentarily glinted off of something that looked like a dome of glass.

Merida squeezed her eyes closed, willing her eyesight to readjust from the burst of light. Bother all, she hated killing her night vision like that. She looked back toward the vanished explosion, trying to make out the glint of glass.

Another dark figure moved beside it and Merida loosed another arrow...and another...and another.

Everything within her field of view suddenly lit up with a bright yellow light. It held steady, shimmering slightly. Merida glanced up and froze. All the noise of the carnage below instantly faded out of her perception.

Above her, she couldn't tell how far, hung something she couldn't identify. It was bright, whatever it was, and clearly the source of the yellow light washing over everything. It spanned the castle in every direction. Both the light and an intense heat radiated from it.

Well, then, she could forget the night vision. She tore her gaze away from the object. The dome that had appeared be glass gave off a bit of steam. Was it...ice, then? It was hard to tell. She made a mental note to inquire later.  


Every person, both black-clad and not, stood fixated on the object above. Every one, that was, except a lone man down in the courtyard and a woman up on the opposite walk, the woman still wielding whatever flaming object she swung about like a war-hammer.

Both the man and woman continued to lay into the men in black, each impact accompanied by a dull _CLANG-THUD_. Merida couldn't be sure if their blows were fatal, or just meant to incapacitate. She wasn't sure it mattered, though. The whole point of battle was the render the enemy unable or unwilling to fight and to that end, unconsciousness and maiming were just about as good as death.

Merida watched the pair at work, her own bow at half draw. Their motions were fluid, almost graceful. They moved with purpose and precision, choosing their targets with what seemed to be only secondary regard for physical proximity, but clearly taking advantage of their enemies' distraction.

A few foot-falls behind her yielded to her mother's voice.

“Merida?” said Elinor. “What...gah! What's...”

“Don't know, Mum,” said Merida, raising her weapon once more. “But please don't distract me. We're under attack.” She twisted as she completed her draw, chose another target and loosed. How many were there anyway?

A knot of the figures swarmed the woman with the firebrand. She took out one...two...three of them. Then a high-pitched cry, a shriek of pain from the tone of it, rose up from her direction. The shimmering object overhead disintegrated and in its dissipating light, she saw the woman arc around and smash whatever she held into the side of her assailant's head. After that, things seemed to calm down.

❅ ❅ ❅

Prince Eugene Fitzherbert reclined in a soft chair in the guest suite he and Rapunzel had been given for their stay in Arendelle. He'd found he'd actually liked the place. The people were, well, personable. There were far fewer of them in the city than there were back home. Though the formalities of the occasion of their visit were annoying, as usual.

He'd worked very hard to keep his big mouth shut as much as possible. For which he very much hoped his wife would, erm, reward him, something they'd been putting off the last couple of days during the snow crisis. Otherwise, he'd have been quite content just leaning against a wall and watching everyone and everything. Which was one of the things he did best.

Normally, a man like him would have been up late partying. He had, of course, put in an appearance at dinner, which that evening had been a quiet family affair quite unlike the lavish coronation reception a few days before when Queen Elsa had gone berserk, as he'd heard many people put it.

Mostly he'd sat there, trying to mind his manners and remember which fork was for what and how one was “supposed” to hold the bloody thing. He'd done more people-watching while letting Rapunzel and her cousins happily chatter away about this and that. And he'd been happy that she'd been happy.

When dessert had been served and later removed, he'd retired while his Princess and the Arendelle royals strolled off to visit some more on the way to their own chambers. Any minute now, Rapunzel was going to walk back through the door. He just knew it. And when she did...

He powered down his e-reader, one of the several pieces of twenty-first century technology he'd smuggled back from the future, technology he knew he wasn't supposed to have. But some old habits died hard and besides, the stuff was so ridiculously useful, who could have faulted him?

There were days he wondered whether Flynn Rider really had died. In reality, he'd probably just focused on certain of his own personality traits, augmented those with some of the fictional Flynn's, and made up the rest as he'd gone along. Over the years, his act had become more or less permanent and he strongly suspected that he'd have eventually become lost in it. His wife and his in-laws had said as much and they were probably right.

He'd been enjoying “Rapunzel and Other Maiden in the Tower Tales From Around the World,” published by Sur La Lune Fairy Tales. At least, it would be in another few centuries. He could get back to it later. And when the device ran out of juice, he'd just plug it into the small contraband solar charger he'd appropriated. And when that broke?

He made a mental note to study electrical engineering. Maybe he could build a wind-driven generator hooked up to an AC-DC converter. He'd need wire, preferably copper, a few magnets, maybe some...

A familiar cry wrenched his attention toward the door. “ _CO-RO-NAAA!_ ” It was Rapunzel. And she was...oh, no, that was _not_ a battle cry!

Eugene launched himself out of his chair and made a slight detour for his frying pan on his way to the door. He flew through it, the fingers of his free hand catching briefly on the door's edge, just enough to pull it shut as he went. He hurtled down the corridor in nothing but mid-thigh-length under-drawers, the balls of his bare feet smacking the cool tiles.

He followed the sounds of battle, sounds he'd never have expected to hear in a friendly country. He was instantly glad he'd long ago trained himself to expect the unexpected. He came out onto a raised walk high above the courtyard.

It was hard to tell what was happening where. Dark shapes flitted about, occasionally dropping to the ground, sometimes apparently on their own volition and sometimes knocked down by something. No sooner had Eugene's eyesight adjusted to an area when fire flared up there, killing his night vision.

He grunted a curse to himself, then turned and made for the nearest staircase. He reached the ground floor somewhere within the Castle. He instantly regretted not having better familiarized himself with the building's layout. He was just as instantly glad it was smaller than the Corona Palace.

If all else failed, and it so happened that it did in that moment, he could always follow the sounds of violence. He did just that. Faint banging sounds and raised voices echoed down the hallway. Then a loud _BANG_ reverberated through the corridor, shaking what felt like the entire building. Eugene paused briefly. He had a very bad feeling about that.

Moments later, the wall to his right dropped away ahead of him, an expanse of darkness replacing what would have been a continuation of wall torches. Objects moved through the dimness, barely visible by the torches that lined what Eugene knew to be the castle's main courtyard.

Two black-clad figures dropped down barely a dozen paces in front of him. He skidded to a stop. Both men lunged at him with drawn short swords.

Eugene bellowed a response, “ _CO-RO-NAA!_ ” and laid into the assault.

He shed the first blow off the bottom of his frying pan and ducked the second. He threw his weight to the left, shouldering the first man into the wall while sweeping his pan up into the second man's chin. The crack of bone made him flinch.

Metal glinted in his peripheral vision. He jabbed his pan over his own head and heard the ring of steel off iron. He slammed the heel of his palm into his opponent's sternum, then brought his knee up into the other man's groin. He went down and Eugene panned him on the head for good measure.

Eugene swung back around toward the second man. He rotated his pan, the edgewise strike collapsing a larynx. He let that man drop to the ground, ignoring his attempts to gasp for breath.

A few more steps brought Eugene out into the courtyard. He paused at its edge, making a quick assessment. Arendelle soldiers and black-clad figures fought here and there. The ring of swords, grunts of effort, cries of pain, the high-pitched whistle of arrows, and the whoosh of fire filled the space, echoing off the walls. Flames flickered back and forth along the upper walkway that ran along the top of the castle wall. Intermittent metal-on-metal and pan-on-flesh sounds told Eugene that his beloved was deep into her own fight, that noise adding to the cacophony. That realization sent a surge of adrenaline through him, but he forced it back. It wouldn't do to either let himself or her be distracted by his fears.

Instead, he sought the nearest enemy. Even in the torchlight, the black-clad figures were difficult to see. Fortunately, his eyes had adjusted to the gloom and anything moving would be easier to spot. He laid into the nearest one, deflecting a sword, then bringing a foot down against a kneecap. He half heard, half felt the crunch as ligaments tore away as that knee hinged backward in ways it was never intended to bend. Eugene knocked that man's sword out of his loosened grip on his way to the ground, then scooped it up himself.

He'd have to wield the blade off-handed. Fortunately he'd trained for that.

He turned into the next attack, ducking a blow and striking straight into a throat, the tissue yielding, a gurgling sound following the blade's withdrawal. He spun away from the dying body and sank down into a ready stance, searching for his next victim. He'd be damned if he was going to let anyone lay siege to his cousins-in-law's home unopposed. Besides, that sort of thing was what he did as of late.

Eugene made out the barely-seen flicker of arrows flying through the air. He let his eyes dart about, searching, yet trying to avoid the torches that threatened to kill his night vision.

The sky above abruptly lit up with a bright yellow glare. He sighed inwardly. Only Rapunzel would be so bold. Well, she sure did have a flair for the dramatic. So much for his night vision.

His opponents momentarily distracted, he took two steps toward his first target, flexing his knees as he prepared to lay into his strike pattern. The man went rigid, then toppled onto his face. Eugene recognized a set of goose fletchings on a shaft that would have been almost straight up when the dead man had been standing. Blood trickled from a neck wound. Whoever had loosed that arrow had been very good or very lucky, possibly both.

Eugene didn't have time to dwell on that. He redirected his strike at the second man, who seemed at least as distracted by the fall of his comrade than he'd been at the fire hanging above the castle. A sideways swipe disarmed his opponent, followed by a knee to the upper abdomen and crack over the back of the head.

Eugene kept moving. He chose another target making for one of the inner doors. That man suddenly lurched forward, spun around, and fell over almost before Eugene heard the whistle-whack of the arrow that had dropped him.

Motion out of the corner of his eye turned into a flaming arrow that disintegrated mid-flight. Eugene grunted. That meant exactly two things: the enemy were targeting him; and Rapunzel was covering him. The sounds of pan-to-sword combat floated down from above. How she managed to do both fight and hold that plasma shield at the same time he didn't know. Maybe he'd ask later, though he was quite certain she'd just assure him of the complexity of it all.

Eugene charged toward an Arendelle guard rapidly losing a fight with two of the black-clad men. He bounded up silently behind one and clobbered him on the back of the head, then lunged behind the guard's back to plunge his sword into the belly of the other.

The guard whirled around as both his opponents suddenly dropped, his eyes wide with the adrenaline and fear Eugene knew held the man in their grip.

Eugene gave him a pan-up salute, then pelted past him, up onto the rim of a fountain, then launched himself into the air. He landed on a black-clad back, the impact driving him to the ground. The crunch and pop of breaking and dislocating ribs rippled through his feet. He used the motion to slam his pan down onto the collarbone of one man, the crack of bone vibrating up his arm. A sideways slice caught another in the neck.

The guard who'd been about to engage stared at Eugene, who nodded and jumped off the man's back. He landed in a combat-ready stance, quickly twisting first one way, then the other, evaluating his surroundings.

Sounds of combat drifted down from above. The swish of arrows clove the air, some of them launched by someone on a balcony above and others directed at that person. Whoever it was had some serious skill.

A shriek sounded from above and the bright, hot light hanging over the castle abruptly went out. Eugene gasped. He knew that voice all too well and what its tone meant.

Another figure jumped out of the darkness. He deflected a blade up off his pan and slashed out with the sword, feeling some of the arterial spray wash across his chest. The sounds of battle abruptly dropped away.

Eugene looked about, panting for breath and willing his eyes to re-adjust to the dimness. “Rapunzel!” he called.

“Eugene!” replied Rapunzel. Her voice was strained in a way that made Eugene's skin crawl.

“Are you hurt?”

“Yes!”

“Stay there! I'm coming to...”

“Do your job, Eugene,” she interrupted. “I'll be fine. But I could use some protein. Sooner rather than later.”

Eugene pointed a pan at the nearest Arendeller. “You! Fetch some meat for Princess Rapunzel!”

That person whirled around and dashed off.

“You!” Eugene pointed his pan at another guard. “Close the gates and secure the perimeter!”

“Eugene?” said Rapunzel from the darkness above. She seemed to have changed locations. “There's a boat rowing away from the wall.”

Eugene pointed at another guard. “You, take a detachment and intercept that boat!” He turned his attention back to his wife. “Is anyone else up there with you?”

“Elsa and Anna,” she replied.

“Are they...?”

“They're fine,” she replied. “A little rattled and...oh, dear. I think they're running out of air. Hold that thought.” A grunt floated down from above, then the hiss and sizzle of rapidly-boiling water and the distinctive crack of rapidly-melting ice.

“Yoo-hoo!” called a female voice with a distinctly Scottish accent. It came from the other side of the courtyard from where some of the arrows had been launched.

“And you are...?” Eugene prompted.

“Merida of Dunbroch. Nice fighting, by the way.”

“Nice shooting. And thank-you.” He looked back toward the hissing. “Rapunzel?”

“I'm busy,” she replied.

“The baby?”

“I said I'm busy!” she snapped. Then, “Sorry. She's fine. But barely. I've lost amniotic fluid. Believe me, if that sword had been just a half inch further to the left, the man who'd held it would be begging for death before I'd have granted it, and then only because I'd have run out of body parts to burn!”

Eugene cringed. His wife was usually a gentle soul, at least when it came to people. Certain annoyances notwithstanding. But she was also fiercely protective of her family to the point that Eugene occasionally felt more than a little intimidated. He sometimes thought she might actually go to war over a threat to her children.

Motion out of the corner of his eye turned into someone running up with a plate full of various meats. Eugene grabbed it. He picked up a goose leg. “Catch!” he called as he hurled it through the air. A flicker of something pale lanced out from the upper level.

Rapunzel's face peered down and she waved the poultry. “Thank-you! You're a life-saver, dearest!” She took a bite out of the meat, then put a chunk of something shiny up to her lips.

“Are you sure you're...”

“Dearest,” said Rapunzel curtly, “you do your job and let me do mine. I'll be fine and so will my cousins.”

“Yes, your Royal Highness!”

“And stop that!” Eugene could hear a hint of laughter in her voice, even behind the pain he also heard in it.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you more.”

“I love you most.” Eugene turned returned his attention to his immediate surroundings, ignoring more cracking, popping, and sizzling from up above, and began to point to first one soldier and then to another, disregarding the differing nationalities indicated by their uniforms.

“You! See to the wounded. Segregate the enemy from the others. You! Round up the enemy survivors and keep them separated from each other. You! See to the dead. You...” Eugene paused. He recognized the man before him as one Lord Kai Askellson.

“I beg your pardon,” said Kai, an obvious edge of annoyance in his voice, “but what do you think you're doing?”

“My job,” said Eugene. “That is,” he added, “until I have an opportunity to speak with Arendelle's Chief of Security.”

Kai's eyebrow went up. “Chief of Security?”

Eugene cocked his head slightly. “Please tell me have someone who does that job.”

“It's one of my many responsibilities,” replied Kai.

Eugene frowned. He didn't want to be rude, but things were most decidedly not as they seemed and people had just died because of it. “With all due respect,” he said, falling back on his military training, “this sort of thing...” He made an encompassing gesture. “...would never have happened in Corona.”

“In case you haven't noticed, this isn't Corona.”

“And this never should have happened here either,” Eugene insisted.

“Prinz Eugene!”

Eugene looked up toward where his wife had been standing a minute or so before. Three faces leaned over a railing.

“Your Majesty!” said Kai. Eugene's peripheral vision caught the motion of a bow.

“Heera Kai,” said Queen Elsa. “Your Highness,” she continued, addressing Eugene, “I don't know how you do things in Corona, but here in Arendelle, don't you think you should at least consult with me before ordering my people and my guests about?”

“All other things being equal, your Majesty, yes. But as you can see, things are not exactly equal. And,” he added, “the opportunity presented itself.”

“Oh?”

“It needed doing, and it's what I do.”

“He's very good at it,” said Rapunzel. “I can think of no one better.”

“I see,” said Elsa.

“May I make a suggestion?” Rapunzel asked.

The Queen sighed loudly. “Everyone else does, so why not?” she said indulgently.

“Put me and Eugene in charge while you and Anna get some sleep.”

“Your Majesty,” said Kai, “I really must protest.”

“Continue,” said Elsa.

“On principle, mainly.” After a pause, Kai added, “although I must admit the Prinz and Prinzessa of Corona never stopped going out of their way during the...erm...crisis, your Majesty. And I mean that literally. Now that I think of it, neither of them stopped moving the entire time. Unless they were sleeping, of course. Every time I turned around, there one or the other of them was, helping someone, irregardless of nation, birth, or station. They did anything and everything that needed done and they did it without asking and without thanks.”

“So then what's the problem?”

Kai paused. “The last time a foreigner was in charge...well, things didn't go so well.”

“That depends on your point of view,” said Rapunzel.

“Oh, really?” said Elsa, making a broad gesture.

“It's complicated,” said Rapunzel.

“Would you stop saying that?” Elsa snapped.

“See?” said Rapunzel. “You need some sleep. Anna, you a lot more than your sister. If you weren't both strung out on adrenaline, you'd be out like lights.”

“What?” said Anna.

“You're both severely sleep deprived. Especially you, Anna. Not only are you exhibiting all the symptoms, your body temperatures are fluctuating wildly, your pineal glands are going nuts, not to mention melatonin, seratonin, cortisol, and dopamine levels.”

“What?” said Anna again.

“Essentially, your brains are trying desperately to put you to sleep.”

“How do you know?” Elsa asked. “And don't say it's complicated.”

“If I may?” asked Eugene.

“No,” said Elsa, “you may not.”

“And if I say so anyway?” he pressed.

“Is he always that insistent?” Elsa asked Rapunzel.

“Usually,” Rapunzel replied.

Elsa sighed again and looked back to Eugene. “Fine, but be brief.”

“Give me and Rapunzel temporary, limited executive powers over anything specifically related to the attack. Those powers will be effective only while you and Princess Anna are indisposed and executable in consultation with Lord Kai.”

“How do we know we can trust you?” said Kai.

“That's a good point,” said Elsa. “Like you said, last time an outsider was in charge, he tried to kill us and take over.”

“Strictly speaking,” said Eugene, “you don't. The only way to know for sure is to watch us for yourselves. Besides, my wife is your mother's brother's daughter.”

“That just makes too much sense,” said Anna.

“If you'd like me to suggest something that doesn't make sense, I'm sure I could oblige.”

“That won't be necessary,” said Elsa. “Since you've suggested putting my most trusted advisor in charge over you, I'm willing to accept your proposal. On the condition that you start answering our questions with something other than, 'it's complicated.'”

“But it _is_ complicated.”

“If you do this,” said Rapunzel, “I promise I'll make some time to sit down with the both of you and explain everything. And when I promise something, I never, ever break that promise...ever.”

Elsa seemed to consider that for a few moments. “Very well,” she said at length, “done. It's a good thing I like you, cousin,” she said to Rapunzel.

“Oh, good!” said Rapunzel cheerily. “You won't regret it!”

“We'd better not,” said Elsa flatly. “Because if this goes badly, I shall be very unhappy.”

“Noted and logged, your Majesty,” said Eugene.

“Now,” said Rapunzel, “go get some sleep while we...”

“Are you giving me orders?” said Elsa.

Rapunzel groaned audibly.

Eugene cleared his throat. “I think what my wife means to say is that we respectfully and strongly recommend that you and Princess Anna go get some sleep.”

“Oh, come on, Elsa,” said Anna. “I don't know about you, but I do _not_ need any urging.” She yawned. “And we'd both feel and think a lot better tomorrow.”

It was Elsa's turn to groan.

“Shall I escort you?” Rapunzel asked.

“Can you even walk?” Elsa asked.

“I've been impaled,” said Rapunzel, “not amputated.”

“Impaled, not amputated?” Elsa repeated, her tone strong with surprise and incredulity.

Rapunzel appeared to ignore the remark. “And incidentally, yes, it hurts. But don't worry,” she added dismissively, “I heal quickly. We were going in that direction anyway.” She looked back at Eugene. “I'll be down in a bit, once our cousins are settled.” Then she looked across the way. “Thank-you, Princess!” she called. “You helped a lot.”

“Oh, no worries,” said the girl, whom Eugene figured to be Princess Merida. The Scottish accent was quite distinctive and Eugene had kept himself occupied over the past few days keeping track of that sort of thing. “Need any help?”

“Young lady,” said an older woman from somewhere behind Merida. Queen Elinor, perhaps? “I think you've done quite enough.”

“But they're our friends and allies, aren't they?”

“But...very well. But in the mornin'.”

Merida sighed. “Yes, Mother.”

Eugene heard slow footfalls as Rapunzel and her cousins made their way along the walk and toward the Royal chambers. Various mutterings and squeaks of alarm floated after them, along with the occasional male voice that Eugene gathered belonged to one of the guards.

He returned his attention to Kai. “What a mess,” he said.

Kai regarded Eugene, his face only half lit by the nearest torch. “I'm not sure where to start,” he said at last.

“Fortunately, I do. First, do you have any objections to what I've already ordered?” At Kai's raised eyebrow, Eugene renumerated his previous commands.

“That sounds sensible to me,” said Kai at length.

“Well, we have various protocols in Corona,” Eugene said casually. “It's a long story and I'd be happy to tell it at a later date. First, though...” He looked around and took note.

Men, most of them in uniform, milled about doing various tasks, mostly marching prisoners and carrying bodies. A line of corpses grew across the courtyard, the details mercifully dulled by the dimness. The iron-rich tang of blood and the other smells associated with violent death hung in the air. Eugene exhaled.

“At this point, I recommend sending all foreigners back to their quarters, to remain there until full dawn. Something's obviously afoot and it would make me feel better if only Arendelle personnel were involved in this. Myself and my wife excepted, of course.

“Second, I think we should find somewhere else to put the bodies. Even with the gates closed, this is a bit too public.

“Third, we need someone to clean up the blood.

“Other than that...and keeping our eyes and ears open...I'm not sure there's much else to do until we start interrogating the prisoners. In the meantime...” He knelt down next to one of the fallen attackers. The man's black clothing fit very closely, but not so much as to restrict any movement. Almost every inch of skin was concealed, except for a slit around the eyes, the rest of the head wrapped in some sort of scarf or possibly a pair of them.

Eugene grabbed the edge of the cloth and pulled downward, revealing nose, mouth, and smooth-shaven chin. Then he peeled the rest of the covering off the man's head, revealing very short, almost stubbly hair. The man was Caucasian, the skin around his eyes smeared with charcoal.

He grabbed the man's hand and peeled off a tightly-fitting leather glove.

“Hmm,” said Eugene pensively. “That's odd.”

“What's odd?”

“First of all, these men are dressed like ninjas.”

“Ninjas?”

“Assassins from Japan. But this man is European. And this tattoo...” He indicated a mark on the back of the man's hand. “...is Hessian.”

Eugene looked up at Kai's raised eyebrow. “Someone hired German mercenaries to attack you disguised as Japanese assassins.”

“But who would do that? And why?”

“That, your Lordship, is an excellent question,” said Eugene, rising back to his feet. “One that I think will have to wait for those interrogations I mentioned. But if this is at all connected to the recent actions of certain persons from Southern Isles or Weselton...and I think we both know who...then things may become a little more interesting.

“Best not to make any accusations until we have more evidence, though. In fact, you, me, Rapunzel, the Queen, the Princess, and perhaps Lady Gerda, should probably be the only ones trusted with it. More people in the loop mean greater risk of security leaks. Worse, it could generate undue and premature public outcry.” Eugene almost grimaced. When had he become so diplomatic and eloquent? Oh, yes...it was when he'd accepted the King of Corona's terms the day after Rapunzel had been returned to her home. Or, rather, that had been when Eugene had started paying attention to those sorts of things.

“Sir!” A green-clad Arendelle soldier stepped up and smartly saluted Kai. He saluted back.

“Yes, Captain?”

“Sir, we...” He glanced at Eugene.

“This is Prinz Eugene of Corona,” said Kai evenly. “He's overseeing this investigation in consultation with me.”

“Ah. I see. Well, then. Shall I presume those orders came from him, then?”

“If you mean the ones about securing the perimeter,” said Eugene, “yes.”

The Captain nodded. “Sir...your Highness...we have men in custody.”

“All of them?”

“Ah...”

Eugene's impression that the Arendellans had little idea how to deal with a security crisis was growing stronger. For starters, he wasn't entirely sure their idea of securing the perimeter and his meshed up even remotely well enough. He put up a hand. Then, “Herr Kai?”

Kai gave the Captain a set of instructions about the foreigners, the bodies and the mess. “Then,” he added, “report to Prinz Eugene about...ah...security procedures. He says they have some pretty good ones in Corona.” He glanced at Eugene. “While I have my doubts, I'm willing to forestall judgment. I'll be keeping a very close eye on all of that, mind you.”

“I wouldn't have it any other way,” said Eugene.

The Captain saluted, then turned and trotted off.

Eugene chuckled ruefully.

“Your Highness?” asked Kai.

Eugene almost didn't notice the form of address. “I didn't want to be bored anyway,” he said after a moment. He made a mental not to stop complaining about boredom. He returned his attention to the scene, watching for an opportunity to leave the rest to whomever was on Night Watch and go get some sleep himself.

❅ ❅ ❅


	2. Chapter 2

❅ ❅ ❅

Anna Agtharsdottir's eyes fluttered open. She lay there in bed, staring up at a dark blue canopy supporting rich blue velvet draperies.

Anna sat up and groaned softly, then swung her legs over the edge of...wait a minute, she wasn't in her own bed. Her covers weren't blue! Neither was her own canopy. Her heart beat even faster than it had before. She looked up, her head turning slowly as she took in the room, her jaw slowly dropping open.

The entire room was done in shades of blue. The floral designs on the walls, the geometric patterns on the door, the expansive rugs on the floor, the candles, the accents on the wardrobe, dresser, and vanity, the velvet upholstery on two chairs and a fainting couch, the bedclothes, the draperies on either side of the window. There was only one person she knew who liked blue that much. And that, in turn, could only mean one thing.

Something moved next to her and Anna almost stopped breathing. She slowly twisted around, bracing a hand on a thick, blue coverlet, still mostly smoothed out over the other bedding and the mattress beneath it, but dimpled where she'd been sleeping on top of it. It felt slightly damp. A familiar person rolled over and blinked blearily up at Anna, tendrils of white hair falling over ice-blue eyes, and a single thick, white braid flopping over Anna's hand.

Anna felt her lips turn up in a smile. “Elsa!” she squealed. She threw her free arm around her sister's torso and hugged her.

“Um...Anna?” said Elsa nervously.

Anna pulled back. “Mm?”

“Wh...oh.” Elsa grunted, then propped herself up on her elbows.

It was then that Anna noticed her sister was splayed out on the bed and completely naked. “Um...Elsa? You're...um...uh...” She gestured to her sister.

“What?” Elsa asked, her voice thick with confusion. She followed Anna's hand motions and her eyes went wide. “Wh...whoa! Oh...right...that.”

“Wait, what?”

“You...did realize my clothing was...not exactly clothing. I did mention that, didn't I?”

“Oh, I don't care about that...much. It was just unexpected, that's all. The ice dress disintegrating overnight part. Guess I might have expected that. But...Elsa, I'm in your room!” she gushed.

“Yes. Yes, you are.”

“But I'm in your room! With you!”

Elsa smiled.

“That, like, never happens!” Anna paused. “Please let this be a good sign.”

“I'd like to think so.” Elsa groaned lightly, then rubbed her forehead. She exhaled, then looked at Anna.

All the previous night's memories suddenly flooded back into Anna's mind. Dinner...the walk along the upper wall...the attack. Rapunzel, limping slightly from her abdominal wound, escorting them back to Elsa's room. She'd seen Elsa lay down on her bed, that fabulous dress of hers flowing around her like a glacier and glittering in the lamplight. Then Anna herself had lain down beside her sister. She'd only intended to enjoy one moment, one more minute with her sister, afraid that it would be taken away come dawn, and that things would go back to the way they'd been before Coronation Day.

She'd expected to awaken back in her own room, alone, just like she had every day of her life. But there they were, she and her sister, in the same room, having just awakened from sleeping on the same bed. It made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She smiled. Elsa cocked an eyebrow.

“Oh,” said Anna, “I was just thinking how ironic this is. Us...here...now...together.”

Elsa smiled back, then chuckled. Then she rolled over and stood up and grunted. She stretched, her braid falling down her back. She padded over to her vanity, Anna's gaze following her. She peered into the mirror, then grabbed a cloth, dipped it into a basin and began to scrub at her face. Then she paused and looked over her shoulder. “Do you have to stare at me?”

Anna blinked. “I...uh...I'm sorry. I didn't mean...”

Elsa deflated. “No. I'm the one who should be sorry. I'm just...not used to having anyone in my presence, least of all you.” She went back to the scrubbing.

Anna sighed. “I've seen more of you in the last few days than I have in the previous thirteen years put together. And the occasional glimpse across the grounds doesn't count.”

Elsa exhaled. “I know. If I could turn back time, and take it all back, I would. But...”

“It doesn't work that way. I know. But we can move forward. We can be close again. Best friends again. Like we were as children. Please, Elsa.” Anna could feel her own fear trying to rise up against her hope.

“It...I...”

“Please don't say 'can't.' Because we can. It _can_ be that way. I know it. You know it. Yesterday proved it.”

Elsa held Anna's gaze for a long moment, then returned her attention to her washing. After a few minutes, she picked up a small towel and dried her face. A smile spread across it. “I could get used to this. Really, I could.”

Anna smiled. “Me, too.”

“But how do we sustain it?”

Anna thought for a moment. “Love,” she said simply.

Elsa sighed. “Sounds easier said than done.”

“Isn't everything?”

“I suppose.”

Anna stood up and groaned. “Oh...by...Mjolnir...” she grunted.

Elsa raised an eyebrow.

Anna placed a hand on the small of her back and pushed on it until she was standing upright. “I feel like an old woman! Does all that running around through the snow and climbing up and down always do this to a person?”

Elsa shook her head slowly. “No idea. I've never been off the grounds before, remember? Well...not never, but, well, you know.”

Anna slowly twisted herself back and forth, rotating her arms and shifting her legs. “I think,” she said at length, “this is helping.”

“Are you sure?” Elsa picked up a tooth-cleaning stick, dipped the cloth swab wrapped around one end into a jar of rosemary and white wine, then began to brush her teeth.

“No...not really. Do you know who we might ask?”

“Uh-uh,” said Elsa around the stick. After a few minutes, she took a sip of the mixture, swished it around in her mouth, then swallowed.

She turned and walked over to her wardrobe, opened the doors, and began to rummage. At length, she pulled out a simple, dark blue linen dress and tossed it on over her head.

Anna waited for Elsa to settle her garment about her form before sidling up to her. “In any event,” she added as she swiveled around and hooked an arm around Elsa's elbow, “I just got my sister back and I have a resolute and unyielding need to spend a lot of good, quality time with her.”

Elsa cocked an eyebrow. At length a smile spread over her own face. “Anna, you're relentless, you know that?”

Anna shrugged, then kissed Elsa on the cheek.

Elsa giggled. “You never give up, do you?”

“Not until I'm dead. And...not even then.”

The smile faded from Elsa's face. “Just how...dead...were you?”

Anna shrugged and began to walk toward the door, guiding her sister. “I always thought it was an all or nothing sort of thing.”

“But I mean...sometimes someone's sort of dead and then they recover. And Eugene...he talked about...what did he call it?”

“CPR?”

“Yes, that.”

“Well...all I know is that I was in the air, hovering over us, looking down on my frozen body...and you hanging on me and crying...and Kristoff and Olaf looking...oh, Elsa!” Anna turned and buried her face in Elsa's shoulder and started to cry.

The weight of Elsa's arm fell about her shoulder. It felt good. Elsa said nothing. Maybe she didn't know what to say. Not that it mattered, really. Anna just needed to be held just then and she wasn't sure she could think of anyone better to do it.

Anna's tears tapered off and she drew back, sniffing. “I'm sorry,” she said.

“Don't be. Not about that. Especially not to me.”

“I love you, Elsa.”

Elsa smiled. “I love you, too, Anna.” She exhaled heavily. “What...what went through your mind...you know, as you...died? If you don't mind my asking.”

Anna grimaced. “Well,” she said sheepishly, “my last thought as I threw myself between you and Hans...was basically, 'Get the _hell_ away from my sister!'”

Elsa laughed. “Really?”

Anna smiled and nodded. “Really.”

Elsa hugged Anna. “I don't deserve you,” she said.

“Doesn't matter.”

“So now what?”

Anna chuckled slightly. “I guess we do what I've been doing the last few days.”

“Which is?”

“Well...I don't know about you, but I was basically making it up as I went along.”

Elsa chuckled. “That was something Father told me. He said half the time I wouldn't know the right thing to do or the best decision and that I'd have to make it up as I went along and learn on the job.” She sighed wistfully. “He was mostly talking about what would happen if he and Mother died early and...and I'd become Drottning without finishing my training.”

She looked up and locked eyes with Anna, the expression mirroring her own hopes, fears, and confusions. “At the time, I didn't know that would actually happen. I always believed it to be theoretical. And now? Now it's real. And...” Elsa chuckled. “Well, considering that my original plan was to stand there all day regally smiling and nodding, then come right back in here. Obviously that didn't quite go as planned.”

“But this is better...it _will_ be better...isn't it...won't it?”

“It already is. It's...more difficult already, too, though.”

“Isn't that what Prinz Eugene said? That life with Rapunzel is better, but also more difficult? And consequently more rewarding?”

“I hope he's right. Despite years of reflex, I don't suppose I...we...can stay in here forever.”

Anna reached out toward the doorknob, then paused. She looked at Elsa, who looked back at her. “Am I...supposed to open your door for you?”

Elsa shrugged. “No idea. This is the first time I've had anyone in here since...” She paused, a pained expression flashing across her face. “...since they died.”

Anna felt a pang of grief. She'd thought she'd finished grieving for their parents. It had been three years since Mama and Papa had embarked on their ill-fated voyage. Those three years had obviously not been enough time to heal. But maybe with Elsa out and about, she could finish the job and finally have peace.

She closed the remaining distance to the door, grasped the knob, and twisted. The door swung gently inward. She briefly marveled at just how easily it moved. Not that it was any different from her own door. Not really. It was just wood and hinges, the same as hers. But that it could be opened so easily, yet had always remained shut to her...well, it was just sad. All that was changing, though, and already had. It gave her hope.

The two of them stepped out into the hallway. Anna instinctively pulled the door closed behind her. She almost flinched as the latch clicked into place. Until she remembered that her sister was still right there beside her, still arm in arm. It was wonderful! Anna beamed at Elsa and Elsa beamed back. They were going to be just fine, she knew it.

Anna turned in the direction of her own room. “I...think I'd like to get out of these winter clothes,” she said. Then added, “if you wouldn't mind?”

Elsa shook her head, still smiling. “Of course not.”

A flash of green caught Anna's attention and she cranked her head around, coming almost face to face with one of Arendelle's guards. “Oh,” she said, almost apologetically. “Um...” She wasn't sure what to say after that.

“Apologies, your Majesty...your Highness,” said the man. “We're to escort you for the duration of the crisis.”

Anna glanced at Elsa, who raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“By order of Prinz Eugene and by concurrence of Heera Kai, your Majesty,” the man replied to Elsa's unspoken question.

“I see,” said Elsa flatly.

Anna just shrugged. She supposed her sister was going to have a good long talk with their cousin's husband and she suspected that was likely to happen sooner rather than later. Maybe. She was, however, sure it would be a conversation the Coronan was unlikely to enjoy.

The two walked down the hall, one guard walking slightly ahead and on the right-hand side, the other just behind them, his boots thumping purposefully on the hardwood flooring.

The damage to the building was obvious. Paper peeled off the walls, paint blistered and puckered. Cracked and splintered wood splayed out from beams and rafters where Elsa's expanding ice had forced the fibers apart. Anna remembered running back and forth with Olaf as blossoming ice had blocked first one route of egress and then another. She hadn't remembered the damage being so extensive. But then again, she'd been literally running for her life and had been understandably distracted.

At length, they arrived at Anna's room. She opened her door, then paused. “Would you...like to come in?” she asked Elsa.

Elsa nodded and wordlessly followed Anna into the room, leaving the guards outside. Anna left the door ajar and walked briskly to her own wardrobe. She pulled out a lightweight linen dress, a vivid weld green with contrasting vibrant trim card-woven in fuchsia, woad blue, dandelion yellow, and madder orange, and tossed it onto her bed. She peeled off the winter clothes she'd been wearing since she'd bought them up at Wandering Oaken's Trading Post.

Maybe, she mused, some day she'd return there just for the sauna. Swedes had some interesting ideas, but the sauna was one of their better ones. And maybe she'd bring Elsa. The thought made her smile again and she was beginning to suspect that her mouth was going to be sore just from all the smiling she'd been doing over the last day or so. She could live with that.

She pulled the linen over her head, then winced and grunted.

Anna raised her hand to her right earlobe. Her fingers met something rough, the touch raising a brief spark of pain. “Ow,” she muttered.

“Anna?” said Elsa.

Anna stepped wordlessly to her own vanity, pushed her braid back over her shoulder, rotated her head slightly, and peered at her reflection. “What the...?”

She fingered her earlobe again, but more gently than before. The lower quarter of it was covered with something brown and rough. She saw Elsa's reflection appear just beyond her own.

“Is that...?” Elsa cut off her question with a gasp. “Anna!”

Anna felt the temperature drop a little. “It's nothing,” she said.

“It doesn't look like nothing.”

Anna picked up a linen cloth, dipped half of it into a basin of water, and began to massage it over her ear. Her breath hitched in her throat as the sharp pain tried to drive into her skull. She clenched her jaw and continued working at her ear. After a few minutes, she lowered the cloth and examined her work.

Anna whimpered slightly. With the dried blood removed, she could clearly see her injury. The lowermost part of her earlobe had been sliced almost exactly in half vertically, leaving her with essentially a double lobe.

“Oh,” Anna moaned, “please tell me that'll heal.”

“Well,” said Elsa tentatively, “I think so, but...”

“But what?”

“Women in other parts of the world put small holes in that part of their ears and hang things from those holes. Either they keep making new holes, or...”

Anna let out another slight whimper.

“It's not bad,” said Elsa. Anna wasn't sure her sister sounded terribly convinced.

“I should see the physician.”

“Maybe,” said Elsa pensively. “Still...it looks pretty clean. And the outer ear is made entirely of cartilage. And it doesn't look like it's bleeding anymore...much. So...um...just wash it out and call it good.”

Anna peered at her sister. “Wash it out and call it good?” she repeated flatly.

“Ja. You'll be fine.”

“Elsa, I'm _deformed_!”

“No, you're injured. You're still as pretty as ever.” A pause. “Does it hurt?”

Anna frowned pensively. “Not unless I touch it.”

Elsa shrugged. “Well, then, don't touch it.”

“That's easy for you to say.”

Elsa sighed. “Why don't I summon the physician on our way out and have him track you down? That way we can take care of that and do whatever else needs doing at the same time?”

Anna blew air out between her lips. “I suppose. As long as I get to hit someone for this.”

“I think that could be arranged.”

Anna stepped away from her vanity and back to her wardrobe, then slipped on a pair of the leather flats she liked so much. She still wasn't sure why it was that so many of the women in attendance wore such uncomfortable-looking footwear. She herself managed to be both comfortable and stylish at the same time. But then there were Elsa's high-heeled ice shoes that were breathtakingly gorgeous, but at the same time seemingly impossible to wear. And then there was Rapunzel, who was inexplicably quite content in bare feet and didn't seem to care one bit what anyone might think about that.

“There,” she declared, “much better.” She turned to Elsa, whose smile had faded. “Elsa?”

Elsa sighed. “It's...been so long since I've been in here.” Her head swiveled about, her eyes scanning the room. “We grew up in here. More or less. So many memories.” She paused. “Dulled by time, but still.” She locked eyes with Anna.

Anna closed the distance between them and clasped her sister's hands in her own. “Why didn't you tell me?” she asked.

Elsa frowned. “Tell you what?”

“About the magic. About what happened that night.”

Elsa's gaze fell away from Anna's. “I couldn't,” she said softly. “The trolls said we shouldn't. And Papa...well, he followed their advice.”

“I know, but...you didn't mean to hurt me. It was an accident.”

“Well...yes...but we were afraid I'd hurt you again. Maybe permanently. We were just trying to protect you.”

“I still think it would have been better the other way. I mean...that was so much fun! Well, until you hit me, which, let's face it, kind of stung, but...”

“Wait, wait,” said Elsa, “what do you mean it stung?”

Anna cocked an eyebrow. “When you hit me with your magic that night?”

“You...remember that? But I thought...but the troll altered your memory.”

Anna shrugged. “I don't know what to tell you, Elsa. All I know is that I used to not remember, and now I do.”

Elsa slipped one hand away from Anna's and fingered the auburn braid falling over her right shoulder.

“It's the white streak, isn't it?” said Anna. Elsa nodded. “I was wondering about that, too. It's gone and now I remember.”

“But why? And how? And why isn't your mind broken?”

“No idea.” Anna paused. Then a thought hit her. “Hey, maybe we should go ask them!”

Elsa cocked her head.

“No, I mean it. We have questions and they have answers. They've helped us before. First after you hurt me. Then after...um...after you hurt me again.”

Elsa's face fell even further. The temperature around them dropped suddenly and ice began to form on the wall behind her.

Anna reached out for Elsa, but she recoiled. “Elsa?”

Elsa grabbed her own arms and stared furiously at the floor.

“Elsa...I forgive you.”

Elsa looked sharply up at Anna. “H...how? Why?”

“I love you. So I forgive you.” Anna held her arms open. She wanted to take the couple of steps forward and grab Elsa in a big hug. But she made herself wait.

The moments stretched on into what felt like an eternity. Suddenly, Elsa staggered forward into Anna's waiting embrace and began to cry. “I'm so sorry, Anna,” she sobbed, “for everything.”

Anna wrapped her arms around her sister and hugged her as tightly as she could. “I forgive you, Elsa,” she said again. After a few more moments, she added, “oh...can you breathe?”

Elsa looked up, her tear-stained eyes blinking. Then she started to laugh. “Oh, Anna. You're such a joy. I wish...I wish I knew you better.”

Anna beamed, then wiped the tears from her sister's face. “Well, I think now's a great time to start. I want to get to know my sister and nothing anyone can say or do is going to stop me,” she said decisively.

Elsa laughed and Anna joined her. “And now I suppose we have work to do,” she said.

Anna sighed. “I guess. But that doesn't mean I'm letting you out of catching up on our life.”

Elsa's mouth quirked up in a sort of lopsided smirk. “I wouldn't have it any other way.”

Anna hugged Elsa again. “This feels _so_ good!”

“It does,” said Elsa. “It really does. Don't let me shut you out again.”

After a few moments, Anna pulled back, again taking Elsa's hands in her own. “Oh, don't worry. I won't. Besides, if our cousin's going to visit us again, let's not let it be so she can burn your eyebrows off.”

Elsa cocked an eyebrow. “Do you think she can?”

“Something tells me...yes. Don't ask me any more than that. It just feels like she's serious is all.”

“Serious, you say?”

“Hmm...Elsa, are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

Elsa shook her head slowly.

“You know all those things we didn't get to do after that night? All that mischief we were planning?”

Elsa's face lit up. “Anna!” she scolded.

“And that song we used to sing?”

Elsa grinned. “When I'm Drottning...”

“And I'm your right hand...”

“We'll get into trouble...”

“Throughout the land!” they finished together, then burst out laughing.

When Elsa's laughter had subsided, she said, “We could get into so much trouble, you know?”

“Oh, but who would we tell? And more to the point, who would anyone else tell?” Anna grinned. “Besides,” she added, “I kind of have an in with the Drottning and I think I can persuade her to be lenient.”

Elsa tipped her head back and laughed.

“I love that. You laughing.”

Elsa sighed, a smile still on her face. “It feels good. It really does.”

Anna felt her grin change, verging on predatory. “Race you to the courtyard,” she said mischievously.

“Oh, ja?”

“Ja!” A pause, then Anna broke into a run, sprinting past Elsa and ignoring the protests of her muscles. She paused just outside her door just long enough to glance back over her shoulder.

“Oh, no you don't!” said Elsa as she broke into a run herself.

Anna hurtled down the corridor, the clomping of guards' boots running counterpoint to her own light foot-falls and those of Elsa just behind her.

Anna rounded a corner. She knew the halls intimately and knew exactly how much to slow to keep from slipping. She spied the main staircase just ahead. She heard Elsa still pelting away just behind her and grinned. She also knew exactly how to mount the banister and then leap off at the bottom. She'd easily pull ahead of her sister!

Suddenly, Anna felt a rush of cold air. “On your left!” came Elsa's voice. She hurtled past Anna on the left.

“Wha...” Anna started to say. Then she noticed a sheet of ice spreading out in front of Elsa. Her sister glided effortlessly upon it, straight toward the stairs. “No fair!” Anna protested.

Another dozen steps and a well-practiced hop put Anna on the banister. Down she slid, faster and faster, catching up to Elsa. They both shot off the bottom of the stair at the same time.

Anna was still in mid-air when she realized she may have miscalculated. No, on second thought, she'd definitely miscalculated. She came down just behind Elsa and landed on the ice. Her feet immediately slid out from under her and she landed on her backside. She felt her legs hit something at once firm and soft. Then Elsa grunted.

The room lit up, then she was sliding out into bright daylight. She screeched in surprise and alarm, completely unable to control her movement. “ _ELSA!_ ” she screamed.

“ _ANNA!_ ” Elsa screamed back at the same time.

A jolt, then they were spinning and shrieking. The roof-lines of the castle and the sky above them whirled around her field of vision. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably less than a minute, they ground to an abrupt stop. A chorus of “Your Majesty!” and “Your Highness!” blended with running feet.

Anna lay there, panting for breath, her eyes wide. A figure in plate armor, fully articulated with what looked like interlocking, red-lacquered bands and a large flaming lily flower surrounded by three suns prominently displayed in gold at the center of the breastplate, loomed over her. A round helm, also red-lacquered and with a nose guard framed a familiar green-eyed face.

“Soshobuka?” asked the person.

Anna peered at the woman in the armor. “R...rapunzel?”

Rapunzel tipped her head slightly. Then, “Oh...right...sorry. You...didn't recognize me in armor, did you?”

Anna grunted and sat up, careful to avoid trying to brace her hands on the slippery ice beneath her. “Why are you in armor?”

“Practice,” said Rapunzel. “But you didn't answer my question. Soshobuka?”

Anna heard Elsa grunt behind her. Then a gasp. “Anna!”

“I'm fine,” said Anna over her shoulder, “I think.”

Elsa exhaled. “Let's not do that again.”

“I think it looked like fun!” Rapunzel all but squealed.

The running feet slowed and turned into several people looming over her and Elsa. Rapunzel looked up. “Don't worry,” she said, “they're fine.” How did she know? Well...Anna had just said so, but that was more to reassure Elsa than anything.

“Must you hover?” Elsa half-growled at the people around them.

They stepped back a pace as Anna and Elsa untangled themselves from each other and stood gingerly to their feet.

Anna peered at Rapunzel.

“Now,” said Elsa, “what was that you asked us?”

“Soshobuka,” said Rapunzel.

“I didn't understand it any better than the first two times you said it,” said Elsa.

“Me neither,” said Anna.

“It means, 'Are you well?' Or 'Are you alright,' depending on the context.”

“Oh,” said Anna.

“But I see that you are,” said Rapunzel.

“Then why is my whole body stiff and sore?” Anna asked.

“Let me guess,” said Rapunzel, “you feel like an old woman and like every one of your muscles is full of sand that's grinding away from the inside out?”

Anna's eyes narrowed. “How'd you know?”

“And I'll also guess that you haven't done much wandering about in the snow, climbing up and down mountains, and doing all that physical exertion, am I correct?”

“Well, yes, but...”

“Lactic acid build-up,” Rapunzel interrupted. “From stressing muscle fibers.”

“Lactic acid?” asked Elsa.

“I thought you said you'd read everything in the Arendelle library?”

“I have.”

“Hm. The point is that you haven't trained for all that, and you over-exerted yourself. Your body needs time to repair. Your muscles need extra protein to properly recover.”

“How do you know all that?” Elsa asked.

Rapunzel grinned. “Five months on the trail.”

“Trail?”

“And where did you get the armor?” Anna asked.

“Oh, I brought it with me.”

“I was always told Prinzessas weren't supposed to fight.”

“Hrmph. And just who would lead the armies of Corona to war when I'm Konigin?”

“Um...your husband?”

Rapunzel's eyes narrowed. “I don't think so,” she said.

“Trail?” Elsa repeated.

“I'll explain it all later, I promise.”

“Rapunzel,” said Elsa, making little effort to hide her exasperation, “are you always this...complicated?”

Rapunzel shrugged. “Eugene thinks so.” She turned her head slightly. “Isn't that right, dearest?”

“Whatever you say,” said Eugene, stepping up behind his wife. Like her, he also wore plate armor, his in purple with a single golden sun on the breastplate.

“I'll remember you said that,” she teased.

“You always do,” he replied in kind.

Rapunzel grinned and oscillated slowly, twirling a frying pan in her right hand.

“Um,” said Anna, “what's with the frying pan?”

“Oh, that,” said Rapunzel casually, “we were practicing...as I said.”

“With a frying pan?” said Elsa.

“Who knew, right?” gushed Eugene.

“Wait,” said Anna, “weren't you using that as a weapon last night?”

“Indeed I was,” said Rapunzel. “Though you missed most of the show huddled in that ice shell.” She looked at Elsa. “Interesting solution, by the way. A bit too passive for my taste, but appropriate for the situation.”

“I had to improvise,” said Elsa.

“Because you have no training.”

“Of course I don't have any training.” Elsa sounded a little annoyed.

“We should see about that.”

“About training to use frying pans? Cousin, that's absurd. You improvised as well as I did. Though why you carry one of those...”

Rapunzel didn't let Elsa finish her sentence. Instead, she whirled around, briefly pointed her pan at Eugene, and then attacked him. He brought his own pan up to meet hers and soon the two of them were engaged in a dance that looked to Anna like any other swordplay. Only with frying pans instead of blades. They whirled around one another, iron clanking and clanging on iron and enameled steel. It was very noisy, but fun to watch. It also attracted a crowd of guards, staff, and those guests not under house arrest. After several minutes, they pulled back and paused.

Rapunzel turned to Elsa. “You were saying?”

Elsa groaned.

“It's very effective,” said Eugene.

“Wait, wait, wait,” said Anna. “I thought you'd been impaled.”

Rapunzel cocked an eyebrow. “I was. You saw my injury yourself. I'm surprised you're...uh...surprised.”

“Well, yes, you showed us. And you were bleeding all over the place. But no one does what you were just doing the day after an injury like that!”

Rapunzel shrugged. “I do. I told you, I heal quickly.”

“How?” Elsa asked.

“It's...”

“Don't say 'complicated,'” Elsa interrupted.

Rapunzel smirked. “It's complicated,” she said.

Elsa glared at her cousin.

“I'll explain later.”

Anna looked at Elsa. “You cheated, by the way,” she said.

“Says who?” said Rapunzel.

Anna and Elsa both blinked at their cousin.

“Nice entrance, incidentally,” said Rapunzel. “A little...uh...chaotic. And I think you scared your retinue. But very nice nonetheless.”

“Anna!”

Anna whirled around. “Kristoff!” she all but squealed.

Kristoff almost skidded to a halt, barely breathing hard. He'd shed his woolens, at Anna's insistence, and had donned loose linen instead, mostly green with woad blue and saffron yellow trim.

“You see?” said Rapunzel. “Kristoff works his muscles hard all the time. So he can take that sort of thing.”

Anna turned back toward her cousin.

“Wait, what?” said Kristoff.

“Anna is sore all over because she doesn't do strength training,” said Rapunzel. “And you're not because you do.”

“Uh-huh,” said Kristoff dubiously.

Anna turned back to him. “Just roll with it,” she said, “because none of the rest of us are following her either.”

“And what's with all the security?” he asked, gesturing to the guards and other people who'd assembled around the Royals. “I was repeatedly stopped, questioned, and searched on my way out here.”

“I take it you missed all the excitement last night.”

“Hey, I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow,” Kristoff said defensively. “You know how it is. Full stomach. Great food. Comfortable bed. Long day...really, _really_ long day.” He turned to Elsa. “Thank-you, by the way. 

You really didn't have to do that.”

“Of course I did,” said Elsa.

“You're part of the team,” said Eugene.

“We have a team?” said Kristoff.

Anna giggled at that.

“But really, what did I miss?”

Anna pointed to the pavers under Kristoff's feet. He looked down at a large area that was much darker than the rest. Then he looked up again to meet Anna's eye. “And that's what, exactly?”

“Blood,” said Eugene. “What's left of it.”

Kristoff flinched and abruptly stepped off the patch of dried blood. “Wha...?”

“We were attacked,” said Eugene.

“What? By whom?”

“Details are classified at this point.”

“What?”

“I said it's classified. It's not the sort of thing I like doing,” Eugene admitted, “but it's necessary for security reasons.”

“No, I mean, what's classified?”

“The information.”

“I think,” said Anna, “that he doesn't know what it means.”

“Then why didn't you say so?”

“I _did_ say so,” said Kristoff.

“No you didn't, you...”

“Gentlemen,” said Elsa, an edge to her voice, “I think that's enough. Prinz Eugene, I think you have a little explaining to do.”

Eugene nodded. “Yes, your Majesty. Which is why we've tentatively scheduled a meeting for mid-morning tomorrow.”

“Oh?”

“Immediately following Rapunzel's morning constitutional?”

“Her what?”

“You'll see,” said Rapunzel, a sing-songy lilt to her voice.

“Why do I have a bad feeling about that?”

“Oh, it'll be fun,” the Coronska insisted.

“And you think I'll be joining you, do you?” Elsa didn't sound particularly convinced.

“Ja.” After a moment, Rapunzel batted her eyelashes. “Please?” she said sweetly.

Elsa sighed. “Fine, but if it ends badly...”

“Don't worry,” said Eugene, “she does it every morning and usually drags me and her retinue along with her.”

“Drags?” said Anna.

Eugene and Rapunzel both chuckled. “Now,” said Rapunzel, “if you wouldn't mind, we could use a bit of a nibble. Then...” She plunged her frying pan back into a large boiled-leather pouch that hung at her waist, then pulled the armored gauntlets from her hands, and tucked them under an arm.

“Then what?” asked Elsa.

Rapunzel didn't answer at first, instead undoing the chin strap securing her helm. She pulled it off, revealing a cloth coif. She slid that off, her brown, copper-tinged hair spilling out. She stuffed the coif into the upturned helm, placed the gauntlets in there too, then tucked the helm beneath her arm.

“It's one of those things you need to do.”

Elsa cocked an eyebrow. “Can you be more specific?”

“Ja.” Rapunzel turned around, took several steps to one of the large fountains, took a deep breath, and plunged her head into the water, one bare foot cocking up behind her. She stayed that way for what seemed an impossibly long time.

“What's she doing?” Anna quietly asked Elsa.

Elsa shook her head slowly. “No idea.”

“Why are her feet bare?” Kristoff asked.

“It's a thing with her,” said Anna, “I think.”

By then, Eugene had stowed his own pan and stripped off his own gauntlets, helm, and coif. He strode over and joined Rapunzel at the fountain. After several long moments, they both raised their dripping heads out of the water, and heaved deep breaths.

Rapunzel turned around, water running down her face. She looked at Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff, and burst out laughing.

“What?” said Anna.

“Oh,” said Rapunzel through her laughter, “you people are just so funny. Haven't you ever seen a woman drink before?”

“Um,” said Elsa, “not like that.”

“Come to think of it,” said Kristoff, scratching the side of his head pensively, “I can't say I've seen anyone or anything drink like that.”

Rapunzel and Eugene each handed their helms to a woman who stood near the fountain, a woman Anna recognized as Rapunzel's retinue, then walked back to Anna, Elsa, and...oh, bother, their own retinue who seemed to have materialized out of nowhere.

“How's your ear, by the way?” Rapunzel asked.

“Ear?” said Kristoff.

Anna blinked. “How...I didn't say anything about it. Not even last night.”

“You have a lot of neurons firing in that area.”

“What?!” said Elsa.

“She has...”

“Ja, ja, I heard you. But I don't know what it means.”

Rapunzel cocked an eyebrow. “Don't tell me your library doesn't have any anatomical references.”

“Of course it does.”

“And you said you've read them all.”

“Ja, and I have.”

“And you don't know about...” Rapunzel paused. “Botheration!”

“What?”

“Not again.” She exhaled. “I'm sorry about that. I keep losing track of what I've learned where and when. I'll explain that, too.”

“You'd better.”

Rapunzel looked back to Anna. “How's the ear?” she asked again.

“What's wrong with Anna's ears?” asked Krisoff. He sounded worried.

Anna exchanged looks with Elsa. Elsa shrugged and said, “You may as well show them.”

Anna brushed her right braid over her shoulder and inclined her head.

Rapunzel peered at Anna's ear. “Hmm,” she said pensively. “Nice one. Yes, that'll heal nicely.”

“You mean it'll...grow back together?”

“I rather doubt it.”

“What?!”

Eugene looked over Rapunzel's shoulder. He chuckled softly. “That'll leave a nice battle scar,” he said.

“Battle scar? Battle scar!? But I don't want a battle scar!”

Kristoff peered at Anna's ear. He let out a low whistle. “Anna...does...does that hurt?”

“It sort of throbs a little. But only if I think about it. Or touch it. It's...starting to itch, I think.”

“It'll do that,” said Rapunzel. “The more severe the wound and the faster it heals, the worse it itches. That sword wound from last night? Whoo-ee! That drove me _crazy_!”

Eugene groaned. “You do _not_ want to know.”

Rapunzel elbowed him in the ribs, her elbow cop connecting with a dull, but strong-sounding _CLANK_.

“And that's really going to leave a scar?” said Kristoff.

“Ja,” said Rapunzel.

“Whoa.”

“I don't _want_ a scar,” Anna repeated.

“Why not?”

Anna glared at Kristoff. “Why not? Why not?! Because Prinzessas aren't _supposed_ to have battle scars, that's why not!” she practically shrieked.

Kristoff held up his hands in a defensive gesture. “Alright, alright! I just...don't understand why having battle scars is a bad thing.”

“Because,” said Anna flatly.

“Because why?”

“Because it's ugly.”

Kristoff shook his head slowly. “No, it isn't.”

Anna glared at him.

Kristoff gently took Anna's hand. “Anna...it doesn't bother me.”

“But you're a man.”

Kristoff shrugged. “I still like it. I think it's cute. It shows you're tough.”

Anna cocked an eyebrow.

“Think of it this way,” said Rapunzel, “it'll make people less prone to want to mess with you. That scar is a mark of strength. Trust me, projecting an image of toughness is a good thing.”

Anna considered that for a moment. “I still don't want to.”

Rapunzel and Eugene both shrugged. “If it makes you feel any better,” said Eugene, a smile breaking across his face. A moment later, he continued in song. “You can't always get what you wa-ant. You can't always get what you wa-ant. But if you try sometimes, you just might find...”

Rapunzel joined her husband, “...you get what you need!”

Anna felt a smile spread across her face. Then she started to laugh. Elsa joined her, then Kristoff, Eugene and Rapunzel.

“Oh, there you are!”

Anna looked past the Coronans toward the gate. A familiar blobby figure pelted across the courtyard.

“Olaf!” said Anna.

Rapunzel whirled around and in the same motion, whipped her frying pan out of its pouch and pointed it at Olaf. Olaf skidded to a halt as the metal began to glow a dull red.

“Rapunzel!” said Elsa. “What are you doing?”

“What...the hell...is _that_?”

“Don't hurt him!” said Anna. She took a couple of steps toward Olaf.

“You didn't answer my question,” Rapunzel growled. “I said, what the hell is that?”

“Hi, I'm Olaf! And I like warm hugs!”

“Rapunzel?” said Eugene. “Put down the pan. I don't think he's going to hurt you.”

Rapunzel didn't budge. “He? It looks like a living snowman.”

“That's because he _is_ a living snowman,” said Anna.

Rapunzel cocked an eyebrow. “Oh? There's no water-based life on this planet, so where'd he come from?” she demanded.

“I made him,” said Elsa.

Rapunzel looked sharply at Elsa and the other eyebrow rose to join the first. “You did what, now?”

“I created him,” Elsa repeated.

Rapunzel looked back toward Olaf. “I see,” she said flatly.

“And Eugene's right. He's not dangerous.”

“A living snowman who likes warm hugs?”

“Rapunzel?” said Anna. She stepped closer, raising her hand toward the pan.

“I wouldn't touch that if I were you,” said Rapunzel, her gaze still fixed on Olaf.

Anna paused. She reached closer, then pulled back. Intense heat flowed out of the metal. “That's...red hot!”

“Sah,” said Rapunzel.

“Is this some sort of trick?” asked Kristoff.

“Hardly.”

“Wait...are we supposed to understand that you're intimidated by a snowman?”

Olaf grinned at Rapunzel in his uniquely Olaf-ish way.

“No, I'm intimidated by the implications of his thermal signature.”

“His what?”

“I think the real question,” said Eugene, “is why isn't the snowman intimidated by Rapunzel?”

“Why would I be?” asked Olaf.

“Because,” said Rapunzel, “I could split your molecules, which would then immediately reignite, producing a ball of flame, and reducing you to so much water vapor, that's why.”

Wait, what? Was she threatening Olaf, of all, um, people? “No!” Anna declared. “Rapunzel, you are _not_ turning Olaf into water vapor!”

“Rapunzel,” said Elsa evenly, “put...that...away. Or shall I pull rank on you?”

A pregnant moment followed. Then Rapunzel relaxed. Her pan's glow dimmed and she returned it to her pouch. She exhaled heavily. “Sorry. It's just...that thermal signature caught me completely off-guard. It's...just the magnitude of it...I...I apologize. Especially to...um...you, ya-Olaf. And I probably need feeding...again...still.”

The woman who'd been standing next to the fountain holding Rapunzel's helm stepped up and handed her a small, rectangular brick of something. It looked like it was mostly rolled oats with bits of fruit and nuts.

Rapunzel accepted it. “Loramin, ya-Helga,” she said.

Helga nodded as Rapunzel shoved her food into her mouth and chewed vigorously.

“Are you going to give him a warm hug?” said Anna flatly.

Rapunzel paused and cocked an eyebrow at Anna, then at Olaf, then back at Anna. She finished chewing, then swallowed. “I don't think that's a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have a baseline core body temperature of a hundred and twelve point four, that's why.”

“What?”

“I said...”

“Ja, ja, but what does that mean? A hundred and six point four what?”

“Degrees. Fahrenheit.”

“What?” said Elsa, her voice full of the same exasperation Anna felt.

Rapunzel popped the remainder of her food into her mouth and chewed, all the while looking from Anna to Elsa to Olaf to Kristoff, back to Anna, and so forth.

“Let us get out of armor,” said Rapunzel after a couple of minutes, “then we'll go do that thing.”

Elsa cocked an eyebrow. “What thing?”

“Rapunzel, you're more random than I am!” said Anna. She knew that was saying something.

Rapunzel cocked her own eyebrow in return.

“What happened to 'while we're indisposed?'” Elsa asked.

“We insist,” said Rapunzel.

“Not until you tell us what 'it' is,” Elsa insisted.

Rapunzel's smile faded. “Elsa, I need your permission for something.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow. “I'm listening.”

“I want to push you.”

Elsa stiffened. “That's...not a good idea. I don't know how I'd react, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't go well. And assaulting the Drottning's person could be construed as an act of war.”

Rapunzel shook her head. “That's not what I mean. If you're going to become comfortable in your own skin, you're going to have to do a lot of things you won't like. They'll challenge you, stretch you, make you very uncomfortable. But it's necessary. No caterpillar becomes a butterfly without a lot of...uh...all that pupa and breaking out of the cocoon stuff. I know because I had to go through it myself. That's how I also know that you need to work with me. You don't get to hold back.”

Elsa looked at Rapunzel for several moments. “I...don't know if I can.”

“People like us don't get to say, 'can't.'”

“Let me guess, resistance is futile.”

Rapunzel grinned, then started oscillating.

Elsa exhaled. “Fine, I yield. Just don't try to overstep my political authority.”

“Agreed,” said Rapunzel. “Remember what I said about grieving?”

Elsa nodded.

“You need closure. Which means a trip to your parents' rune stones.”

Elsa stiffened. “I...we...we're not going to enjoy this, are we?”

“I seriously doubt it,” said Rapunzel gravely. “But you need to do it all the same.”

Elsa exhaled heavily. “Very well. But I must insist that you stop making my decisions for me. Our agreement last night had everything to do with damage control and nothing to do with anything else. I expect I'm going to have far more than enough headaches once people start complaining about their ships.”

“That's part of my plan,” said Eugene.

Elsa cocked an eyebrow at Eugene. “You plan for people to complain to me?”

“No, I plan to help you deal with the logistics. And logistics are my primary specialty. I'd like to go over it during tomorrow's meeting. It's...rather involved.”

Elsa rolled her eyes. “Of course it is,” she said facetiously. “And another thing,” she added, “would you stop saying things none of the rest of us understand? It's very annoying.”

“I'll explain all that at our meeting, too.”

“Why do I get the feeling that's going to take all day?”

“Because it probably will,” said Eugene.

“But first,” said Rapunzel, “our armor. Second, rune stones. Third, dinner. Or in your case, brunch.”

Elsa raised a pair of fingers to her temple and groaned. Anna placed an arm around her sister's shoulders and squeezed lightly. She had a feeling things weren't going to return to normal any time soon, if ever. But she was pretty sure she could live with that.

❅ ❅ ❅

The silence is so thick, I feel I could cut it with a wooden knife. Even the air is still and somehow, our very breathing is softer than it should be. No one says a thing. Not even the Drottning and the Prinzessa.

It is the first time Drottning Elsa has visited this place. As Head of Retinue, it is my business to know such things. Unless she slipped out of her chambers in the night some time in the last three years. Which is possible, I suppose. But the way she holds herself, her body stiff, her jaw set, her eyes almost staring, those are the signs of one far too tense. No, I am quite sure this is, as Prinzessa Elsa Corona puts it, a belated funeral as far as the Drottning is concerned.

I never know what to do or say at funerals. I have not attended many. I usually stand there stoically while a priest gives mass. But today there is no priest. The bishop did that three years ago. And on that day, Prinzessa Anna shed more tears than I would have thought a person could contain. It broke my heart then. It still does.

That funeral was well-attended. As far as I know, everyone within walking distance went to the trouble. People from the farthest reaches of Arendelle and even some from a few of our neighbors.

In contrast, here today are the Drottning and Prinzessa, the Prinzessa of Corona, who for some reason insists on being called Rapunzel, and her husband Prinz Eugene, Prinzessa Merida of Dunbroch, four members of retinue, one Kristoff Halfell, his reindeer, and that strange living snowman that came down from the mountain with them yesterday. Not a large crowd by anyone's standards, yet still more people than I am used to seeing on a daily basis. Another thing that seems about to change, thank God.

The silence stretches on. Not that I blame anyone. The emotions...are complicated, difficult to express. After some time, though, Prinz Eugene begins to sing. He has a nice voice. The tune and the song are at once sorrowful and hopeful. It is like nothing I have ever heard before.

“Lay down your sweet and weary head  
“Night is falling, you've come to journey's end  
“Sleep now, and dream of the ones who came before  
“They are calling from across the distant shore  
“Why do you weep? What are these tears upon your face?  
“Soon you will see all these fears will pass away  
“Safe in my arms, you're only sleeping  
“What can you see

The Prinzessa Rapunzel joins the song, adding her voice in harmonic counter-point. How beautiful! So much, I feel my throat tightening a little and tears beginning to well up in my eyes. I could fight it. I want to be here for the Drottning and Prinzessa, to be their support as is my duty. But I do not.

I see tears glistening in every eye. I do not mean to intrude. But it is my job to be watchful of everything. I have done it for so long, I barely remember how not to observe. So I watch everyone, even as my own emotions bubble up from where they have been sleeping, while the Prinz and Prinzessa of Corona continue their song.

“On the horizon?  
“Why do the white gulls call?  
“Across the sea a pale moon rises  
“The ships have come to carry you home  
“All will turn to silver glass  
“A light on the water, all souls pass

“Hope fades into a world of night  
“Through shadows falling out of memory and time  
“Don't say we have come now to the end  
“White shores are calling, you and I will meet again  
“And you'll be here in my arms, just sleeping

Tears begin to trickle from Prinz Eugene's eyes. Yet his voice, and his wife's, remain strong and steady. The Drottning and Prinzessa begin to cry audibly. The two of them grasp each other's arms so tightly, their knuckles turn white. It breaks my heart all over again. I can at least be thankful that we are not burying a child. That sort of sorrow I do not know if I could bear.

“What can you see on the horizon?  
“Why do the white gulls call?  
“Across the sea a pale moon rises  
“The ships have come to carry you home  
“All will turn to silver glass  
“A light on the water, grey ships pass into the West.”

The two voices trail off, but not into silence. Everyone is crying, the Drottning and Prinzessa loudest of all, wracking sobs shaking their bodies. Small bits of ice fall steadily from Drottning Elsa. I may ask her about it later, but it seems unimportant now. Every face is tear-streaked, even the snowman's. I do not recall Prinzessa Anna crying that much three years ago.

After several minutes that feel like an eternity, the Drottning and Prinzessa turn away from the rune stones.

“Thank-you,” Drottning Elsa chokes. Then she hugs Prinz Eugene and Prinzessa Rapunzel. Prinzessa Anna does the same. The Coronan royals wordlessly return the embraces.

I have long wondered why both Konung Agthar of Arendelle and his sister Drottning Liesel of Corona named their daughters Elsa. I make a mental note to inquire, for the Prinzessa Corona might know, though I do realize that I may never have my answers. That is undoubtedly why she insists on that unusual alternate name. Yet I sense there is more to it than that.

We remain there for a while longer, the Drottning and Prinzessa with their arms around each other, the Prinzessa of Corona with her arms around them both, and Prinz Eugene with his around his wife. It is all so touching and tender. They truly do care about each other, far more than many families do, especially among the nobility.

The Coronan couple seem interested in helping without expecting anything in return. I do not know how I know this. Intuition, maybe. No, I feel things are going to be very interesting for the foreseeable future.

The Drottning and Prinzessa eventually pull away and step up to the stones themselves. They run their fingers over the carvings, still looking as though the last chisel had been made moments ago. They whisper words too softly for me to hear, first at their mother's stone, and then at their father's, shedding still more tears.

They linger for a time before wordlessly drifting back toward the castle. I am glad to follow. I do not always enjoy doing my duty. But the cold and damp, as well as the occasion, motivate me. I draw deep breaths as I go, trying desperately to appear far more calm than I feel. It seems to do some good.

“Your Majesty? Your Highness?” I ask as soon as we've left the cemetery grounds.

“Ja, Fru Gerda?” the Drottning replies.

“As you may know,” I say, keeping my voice as even and professional as I can under the circumstances, “I buried my own parents not long ago. My elder brother, too. So I am no stranger to this. If either of you needs to just talk about it, I stand ready to listen.”

“That's most kind of you,” replies the Drottning. “I'll keep that in mind.”

“Me, too,” says Prinzessa Rapunzel. “My...foster mother, I suppose you could say...died right in front of me. It was awful. I...don't like to talk about it. But I will, if it helps the two of you.”

“And, well,” said Prinz Eugene, “I guess I can be persuaded to open up, too. It's part of my job to support my wife and that means supporting her cousins, too.”

I hear fresh tears rise up.

“You...don't have to do that,” says the Drottning, “any of you.”

“Of course we do,” says Prinzessa Rapunzel before I can respond. “I'm your cousin, I love you, and I'm going to help you whether you like it or not.”

The Drottning and Prinzessa laugh a little.

“I love you two!” says the Prinzessa.

Yes, this land has seen much sorrow and hardship, not least of it over the last twenty years. But maybe, just maybe, there can finally be some healing. I suppose God alone knows. Somehow I feel it in my heart.

❅ ❅ ❅

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I envision Peter Hollens' arrangement of "Into the West," the song Eugene sings.


	3. Chapter 3

❅ ❅ ❅

Anna Agtharsdottir paced back and forth near one of the fountains in the castle courtyard. The sun's rays touched only the uppermost ridges of the high rocks bounding Arendelle Fjord and the rocky bench that supported the capital city of Arendelle. Everything else remained in dawn's shadow.  
“  
Anna,” said Elsa, “you're making me dizzy.”

“Sorry. It's just...she said very first thing in the morning and this is the only way I'm staying awake.”

Elsa cocked an eyebrow.

“I'm not a morning person. Never have been. But you'd know that if...” Her voice trailed off. “Sorry I'm such a grouch.”

Elsa grunted. “I'm not thrilled about it either.” She glanced at the three members of retinue hovering impatiently nearby. “Neither are the staff.”

Anna sighed.

A door opened behind them. Rapunzel rushed out, a large piece of cloth wrapped around her, much of it flowing out behind her like a cape. Her bare legs peeked through a gap in front.

“Ohhh...” Rapunzel moaned.

“Rapunzel?” said Anna. “What...?”

“Hold this!” barked Rapunzel. She tossed the cloth at Anna as she rushed past.

Anna peered at the white cloth, clearly a bed sheet. “Rapunzel...”

“Stay there,” Rapunzel interrupted.

“But...” Elsa began.

“I said stay!”

“Wait,” said Anna, “why are you...”

Anna didn't finish her sentence. A crackle unlike anything Anna had ever heard emanated from Rapunzel's vicinity. Suddenly, a ball of flame erupted from all around her with a loud WHUMPH! It expanded, a hot wind driving before it, then just as quickly collapsed, sucking the air back after it.

Elsa yelped, a wave of ice flowing out in a semicircle in front of her, its leading edge all in sharp spears. She sucked in a ragged breath, echoed by the retinue and Anna herself.

“ _OW!_ ” yelled Rapunzel. She craned her neck around behind her and tried to peer at her own back.

One of Elsa's icicles had pierced Rapunzel's left shoulder, another her right buttock, a third her left calf, and a fourth less than an inch to the left of the small of her back. The blood oozed out and down her bare, pale skin. The base of each spear cracked and exploded, the remainder of each quickly melting into water, running in pink rivulets down Rapunzel's skin before sizzling into steam. She turned around.

“ _THAT HURT!_ ” she bellowed, her voice sounding far louder and more resonant than Anna would have expected.

Anna blinked. “Rapunzel...you...you...”

Rapunzel's eyes narrowed. “I what?” she growled. She stalked back toward Anna, limping conspicuously, the ice in her path melting before her and steaming in her wake. She stopped right in front of Anna.

Anna watched the hole in Rapunzel's shoulder close up, the trickle of blood slowing until only a drying stripe of it marked where it had dribbled from the erstwhile hole, around her bare breast, and down her equally bare flank.

Rapunzel gently pulled the sheet from Anna's hands and wrapped it around herself. She exhaled. “You have no idea how annoying that is,” she said flatly.

Anna felt her mouth working, but the words just wouldn't come out.

“Most women in my condition...alright, every other woman in my condition...just experiences nausea every morning for three months. But not me,” she said, rolling her eyes, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Not Rapunzel. Nooo! She has to endure _that_ every morning.” She cocked a thumb over her shoulder. “Oh,” she added, twisting around to look behind her, “and I think I cracked a few flagstones.”

Rapunzel looked from Anna to Elsa to each of their retinue. “Tell me you brought the bacon,” she said.

Anna blinked again. She still wasn't sure what she'd just seen her cousin do. She had a distinct feeling that Rapunzel was leaving all of them in the dust. “B...bacon?” said Anna.

Rapunzel's eyes narrowed. “If there isn't bacon, violence may ensue,” she growled.

“I think we can arrange that,” said Elsa nervously.

Footsteps sounded behind Anna. Prinz Eugene trotted out, dressed in the same short trousers and nothing else she'd seen him wearing two nights before. “Pardon me,” he said, thrusting something at Rapunzel.

Rapunzel's face lit up. “Bacon!” she squealed. She grabbed it, letting the sheet fall off of her shoulders, apparently forgetting about everything except the bacon.

“Is that...raw?” said Elsa.

“Ja,” said Rapunzel, her mouth full.

“And why are you naked!?” Anna finally managed one of her mounting questions.

“Short notice,” said Rapunzel. She finished her bite, then swallowed. “I'm awfully sorry about all that. I was hoping to have taken care of it before y'all were up.”

“Y'all?” said Anna.

Rapunzel smiled, then ate another piece of bacon.

“Don't tell me you sleep...like that,” said Elsa, gesturing vaguely at Rapunzel.

Rapunzel looked down at herself, then back at Elsa. “What?”

“And just what is _that_?” asked Elsa, gesturing past Rapunzel.

“Discharge,” said Rapunzel around another piece of bacon.

“Discharge?”

Rapunzel nodded. “I'll explain later,” she said between chews. After a few more minutes, Rapunzel had finished the bacon. She looked at her greasy hands and frowned. Something bright and hot briefly erupted around them. Then she slapped her palms together in several glancing swipes.

Rapunzel's retinue...Helga, Anna reminded herself...stepped up beside Eugene and handed Rapunzel a lightweight garment, which she slipped on over her head. The hem came to just above her knees, the sleeves barely enough to cover her shoulders. “There,” she said, “much better.”

She gathered her hair above her occipital lobe, then tied it off with a piece of purple ribbon Helga proffered. Then she accepted a sturdy leather belt with a large knife fixed to it and secured it around her waist. “Right,” she said, “let's go!”

Rapunzel spun around and plowed through Elsa's ice, the solidified water cracking, bursting, and sizzling as she went. Small pieces of it cartwheeled away to shatter on the pavers. Helga trotted after her, her own ponytail bobbing behind her head.

Anna and Elsa looked at each other, both their jaws hanging open.

“Well?” said Rapunzel from halfway across the courtyard.

Anna groaned and set off after Rapunzel. “I think we might live to regret this,” she moaned. She heard Elsa grunt behind her.

They ran slowly across the courtyard to the gate. A pair of guards opened it before them and they emerged onto the stone bridge. They crossed it quickly. A few people already milled about in town. Every one of them stopped whatever they were doing to watch.

“Guten morgen!” called Rapunzel. “God morgen! Bon matin! Nal-heratha!”

“Are you always so cheerful in the morning?” Anna asked between breaths.

“Ai!” Rapunzel responded.

“Wait for me!” Anna recognized the Scottish accent. She glanced over her shoulder at the distinctive red hair.

“Nal-heratha, ya-Merida!” called Rapunzel. She turned around and began to run backward.

Unbelievable! That woman was unreal!

“Try to keep up!” said Rapunzel as Merida trotted past Anna.

“Hello, your Majesty! Hello, your Highnesses!”

Anna and Elsa grunted greetings back.

“Right,” said Rapunzel, “we'll make this a bit easier. Repeat after me!

“Axes flash and broadswords swing!”

Was she joking?

“Well?” said Rapunzel expectantly. How was she not sucking wind? They were barely a quarter of the way across town and Anna already felt like she was going to fall over.

Anna glanced back at Elsa. She was breathing hard, too. Anna remembered watching her run across the freezing fjord several days before. Had she been winded before reaching the other side, or had all the excitement given her a helping hand, as it were? Anna had no idea.

Instead, she repeated Rapunzel's words. The Coronska continued, Anna and the others repeating the rhythmic words.

“Shining armor's piercing ring  
“Horses run with a polished shield  
“Fight those bastards 'till they yield  
“Midnight mare and blood-red roan  
“Fight to keep this land your own  
“Sound the horn and call the cry  
“How many of them can we make die?!”

She paused. Then, “Left! Left! Left, right, left!” She continued with more verses. Where had she learned that stuff? Did they really do things that differently in Corona?

Rapunzel led everyone across town, then through the east gate. She swerved off the road onto a wide path that led uphill. Anna already felt like her throat was going to break off and blow away in whatever wind she had left.

But Rapunzel didn't let up and neither did the terrain. Up and up they went at a slow run. Of the eight of them, only Rapunzel, Merida, and Helga didn't complain once. Everyone else bellyached the whole way, Anna not the least among them.

After what felt like several forevers, they crested out. They came out into a broad meadow dotted with all kinds of flowers. Primrose, buttercup, orchid, larkspur, and marsh mallow. Rapunzel dropped to her knees on a broad, gravelly spot next to a stream and plunged her head into the water. Steam wafted up from it.

Anna didn't wait. She dropped to her own knees and sucked water into her own parched mouth, letting its cool sweetness soothe her abused throat. Even that hurt for a few moments. She had to pause between swallows to suck more air into her tortured lungs.

When she could breathe halfway normally again, she blurted, “We surrender! Arendelle surrenders!”

Rapunzel laughed. “Oh, Anna! Don't be so dramatic!”

“You don't,” Elsa croaked between gasps and her own draughts of water, “have the authority to do that anyway.”

“What the hell was that?” Anna demanded.

“A morning jog,” said Rapunzel cheerily, steam rising gently from her wet head.

“A what?” said Elsa.

“It's that morning constitutional I mentioned.”

“And you do this _every_ morning?”

“Ai!”

“Rapunzel,” said Elsa, “you're strange!”

“Says the cryokinetic.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, cousins,” Rapunzel laughed, “you're so funny!”

“You're not human, are you?” said Anna.

“That depends on your point of view.”

“Wait, what?”

“I've been asking that very question for almost three years. Part of the reason I wanted to discharge before y'all arose for the day was because I knew y'all'd be alarmed. And it was partly because now I have to explain it. Not to mention what I did during the other night's attack. It's highly sensitive information and until my father and I finish arguing about it...which doesn't seem likely anytime soon...it's also highly classified. And given how intelligent and persistent you all are, I seriously doubt the usual plausible deniability lines are going to work.”

“So what are you, then?”

“A pyrokinetic. A firewalker. Well... _the_ firewalker. But after a lot of thought and a lot of discussion with others, I finally decided it doesn't matter. There's a difference between who we are and what we are. That realization helped me become comfortable in my own skin.”

Rapunzel glanced at Anna and Elsa's retinue, all of whom stood wobbly, their bodies heaving with the labor of their breathing. “Well? Don't just stand there. Take a drink and make yourselves comfortable.”

The trio looked at Elsa, who nodded. Only then did they kneel down and press their faces to the stream.

“Are you going to give orders to my staff, too?” Elsa asked flatly.

“You may have noticed that Helga didn't wait for my permission.”

“We call that insubordination,” said Elsa.

“We call it teamwork, anticipating expectations, and striving for continuous improvement,” said Rapunzel. “Try working with your staff, instead of at them. It's extremely effective.”

“I don't know how to do that,” said Elsa.

Rapunzel cocked an eyebrow. “My mother is your father's sister and you haven't been taught that? I'm surprised.”

“But I thought you said,” said Anna, “that you didn't know how to deal with retinue.”

“Not when they're just hovering,” said Rapunzel. “Besides, I'm still used to doing everything myself.”

“What?” said Elsa.

“You don't know anything about me, do you?”

“Just,” said Anna, “what you shared at dinner the other night. That you're Father's sister's daughter and that you were kidnapped as a baby and returned on your eighteenth birthday.”

“You were?” said Merida. “That's...horrible!”

“That depends on your point of view,” said Rapunzel. “But Papa would agree with you. It affected him very deeply and Mama says he still hasn't fully recovered and maybe never will.”

“What about the magic hair?” Anna asked.

“Magic hair?” said Merida excitedly. “You have magic hair?!”

Rapunzel chuckled ruefully. “Nein, not anymore. I still miss it. In a way, though, it's still with me. In here.” She tapped her sternum. “It's actually more complicated than that, but the point is that the magic remains. I call it Sun-Tears. And it's how I heal so quickly.”

“And how fingers and toes grow back?” Anna prodded.

“Exactly. But like I said earlier, it itches like crazy. And like my dear husband implied, you really don't want to be around me when I'm healing from a major injury.”

“Why not?”

“Because I tend to channel the itching into extra aggression. And believe me, I'm an absolute terror on the tournament field when I'm under the influence of that much itching!”

Anna laughed. “I'm sorry,” she said, “I know you're serious, but it just sounds so...whimsical!”

Rapunzel shrugged. “Well...I suppose you're not wrong. And Elsa, you're not wrong about me being strange, either.”

“And the...Sun-Tears,” said Elsa, “are what make you a pyro...Firewalker?”

“Uh...not exactly. Officially, that part of my story is classified at the highest level. Even I'm not allowed to talk about it, except to certain people and under certain circumstances.”

Elsa tipped her head backward and exhaled heavily, driving a small flurry toward the sky. The crystals caught the light and twinkled before vanishing.

“That's beautiful!” Merida gushed.

Elsa looked at her and blinked.

“She's right, you know,” said Rapunzel.

“It's...but we're getting off-topic, I think. As for State secrets...well, I think it should go without saying that nobody does that better than me.”

“That doesn't surprise me. And...I'm going to talk to you about it anyway. Papa will probably...pass a brick when he finds out, but as I said, I'm pretty sure citing plausible deniability is not going to fly with you.”

Rapunzel rose fluidly to her feet. “But first, I think it's time for brunch.”

“Who brought...” Anna didn't finish her sentence.

A large twig snapped somewhere off to her right. A turn of her head brought a large brown bear into view. It shambled slowly out of the forest and stopped on the edge of the clearing. It seemed to be staring directly at her. She felt her heart leap up into her throat, pounding at her as though it wanted desperately to escape. At any other time, she'd have been glad to have a still-beating heart.

“Nobody move!” Merida hissed.

Rapunzel chuckled. “Come here, boy!” she called excitedly, as though summoning a dog.

“Rapunzel,” said Elsa through her teeth, “what are you doing?”

“I know bears,” said Merida quietly, “and that's not how you deal with them.”

“So do I,” said Rapunzel, “and this is how I deal with them.” She turned her attention back to the ursine. “Come on!” she called. “Come and get it!”

“What are you doing?!” Anna shrieked.

“Like I said, it's time for brunch,” said Rapunzel cheerily. She turned back to the bear and called some more.

“You're going to feed us to the bear?” Merida blurted.

The bear chose that moment to bellow and then charge.

“Don't be absurd,” said Rapunzel.

The beast covered the ground between them, a space barely wider than the castle courtyard was long, in a frighteningly brief time. One moment, it stood at the edge of the meadow, the next it bore down on them.

A surge of ice shot out from behind Anna, icicles protruding in random directions. It raced across the ground. The bear charged right into it, the roar of rage abruptly pitching into a scream of pain that merged with the crash and clatter of shattering ice. Its eyeballs exploded and it collapsed, skidding to a stop, then sagged onto several of the sturdy icicles Elsa had generated, coming to rest directly in front of Rapunzel and barely a dozen paces in front of Anna.

Rapunzel spun around as Anna scrambled to her feet. Elsa stepped up beside her, cold air rippling off of her. Rapunzel held up her hand in a fist. “Hold your hand like this,” she said to Elsa. After a pause, she smiled sweetly and added, “Please?”

Elsa hesitated, then complied. Rapunzel lightly bumped Elsa's fist with her own. At the unasked question, Rapunzel explained, “It's an expression of solidarity. So, like I said, it's time for brunch!”

Rapunzel looked around, then took a few steps toward the edge of the meadow.

“Wha...what happened?” said Merida.

“Can you be more specific?” Rapunzel asked over her shoulder.

“I mean, it just dropped dead! Bears don't do that! And why did its eyes burst like that?”

“That's what happens when you boil its brain.”

“What?!”

“I boiled its brain,” Rapunzel repeated.

“What?” said Anna. “How?”

“Let me guess,” said Elsa, “it's complicated?”

“Ja.”

“Rapunzel,” said Elsa, “I know you're just...doing things and for your own reasons. But it's very disorienting.”

“Good.”

“I think the Queen has a point,” said Merida. “It might be nice if you'd at least warn us before you do things like summon bears to slaughter.”

“Point taken.”

Rapunzel drew the nearly fore-arm's-length of steel from the stiffened leather sheath on her belt. At least, it looked like steel. Yet it bore a curious opalescence that Anna had never seen on anything but mother-of-pearl.

“Now,” she continued, “pursuant to the lot of you agreeing to total confidentiality, I'm prepared to tell you everything while I carve up Smokey here,” she said, nodding at the bear.

“Smokey?” said Anna. “It has a name?”

Rapunzel lowered her voice in an attempt at a low baritone. “Only _you_ can prevent forest fires,” she said.

“What?”

“Right,” said Rapunzel cheerily, “who's hungry?”

❅ ❅ ❅

Anna stumbled through the castle gates. Her throat hurt almost as much as it had after the brutal climb out of the city. The return trip had been all downhill. Like nearly everything else since the morning of Coronation Day, it had defied her expectations. Instead of an easy slide back into town, she'd experienced a bone-jarring, knee-hammering descent. Her legs felt like rubber and her kneecaps felt like they threatened to pop off.

If she and her companions had been running uphill, Anna was quite sure she'd have lost her...what was it Rapunzel had called it...oh, yes, elevenses all over whomever had been in front of her. She still couldn't believe she hadn't done that at rest after what her cousin had essentially forced them all to eat up there above the waterfall.

But she ignored that. Her sole thought at the moment was to quench her screaming throat. She reached down inside herself and found just enough energy to pour into a mad dash to the nearest fountain.

She all but hung on its rim as she shoved her face into the cool water. That first dunk was very short-lived. It figured that she'd forgotten to breathe first. And it figured just as much that breathing, and _hard_ , was the only thing she'd been doing for the last half-hour. Well, that and running downhill. Which hadn't been nearly as difficult as uphill, but still.

When Anna had slaked what felt like the next two days' worth of thirst, she gathered her feet more firmly beneath her and, after making sure they'd be decent enough to support her, began to splash water into her face and over her head. It felt _soo_ good!

The water grew abruptly colder. A thin film of ice formed on its surface. It cracked, broke apart, fused back together, then came apart again, over and over as the fountain splashed and people crowded around to slake their thirst and cool their heads. A rime of ice spread across the stone rim.

Anna looked to her right. Elsa bent over the fountain, beads of ice falling from the tips of her hair and all around her face, bouncing on the thin ice forming and reforming on the water, or else merging with it. Elsa panted, a curious expression on her face.

“Elsa?”

Elsa glanced at Anna, a very brief smile flickering across her face. “I thought I was going to die,” she croaked.

“So did I,” said Anna, her own breathing still barely under control. “Again,” she added.

A pained expression flickered across Elsa's face. Anna reached out and squeezed her sister's shoulder. “Elsa? I still don't blame you for any of that. If you're short with me over your power, at least now I know why. And because I know why, I can deal with that. I promise to be careful not to give you reason for it.”

Elsa smiled and the ice receded, though not entirely.

A hissing sound grabbed Anna's attention. To her left, Rapunzel had dunked her head into the fountain. Steam rose energetically from the water. After the morning's events, her cousin's display above the fall, and the story she'd unspooled, Anna was no longer surprised by Rapunzel.

Anna's mind still spun from all of that, though.

After a couple of minutes, Rapunzel raised her head and drew in a ragged breath. “Whew!” she said. “Invigorating, isn't it?”

“Not quite the word I'd choose,” Elsa panted.

“Me neither,” said Anna. “Definitely not boring, though,” she added.

“And you didn't want to be bored anyway, did you?” said Rapunzel.

“Well, no, but running up to the hills wasn't what I had in mind.”

“As you may recall,” said Elsa, “that was what I did. And you may also recall that I didn't exactly plan that, either.”

Anna chuckled through her still-heavy breathing. “Neither of us planned any of this.”

“Speaking of planning,” said Rapunzel, “I believe we have a meeting.”

“And I suppose,” said Elsa, “you have that planned down to the minute?”

“No,” said Rapunzel pensively, “but I could measure it in oscillations of a hydrogen atom's electron.”

“What?”

“Never mind. We agreed we'd convene shortly after returning here, did we not?”

Elsa nodded.

“So as soon as we've caught our breaths...”

“Um,” said Anna, “would you mind if we freshened up first? And ate some real food?”

“What was wrong with what we ate up there?”

“You mean besides that it was a bear?”

“I still don't believe you made us eat that,” said Merida from the other side of Rapunzel. The Scottish Princess plunged her head into the water. A moment later, she pulled it out, took several deep drinks, then leaned on the fountain's edge and panted.

“But it was good, wasn't it?” Rapunzel gushed. After a pause, “At least I cooked it for you.”

“Let's not go there,” said Elsa.

Rapunzel shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“Wait,” said Anna, “Elsa, can't you just arrange for anything we want to be delivered? I mean, isn't that one of the benefits of being Drottning?”

Elsa blinked. “Oh,” she said. “Right.” She exhaled. “It's more of that...public stuff I hadn't planned on doing.” She smiled. “Though I think I can get used to it.”

Anna felt a smile spread across her own face. “Me, too!” She threw her arms around Elsa. She felt her sister stiffen slightly, then relax and hug her back.

Anna stepped back, then pulled at her sleeve. “But I do want to change. Otherwise, I think this dress might grow mushrooms.”

Everyone nodded in assent.

“Very well,” said Elsa over Anna's shoulder. “Meet us in my study in twenty minutes. Gerda, please have Kai meet us there and then join us once you've arranged a standard luncheon for six.”

“Ten,” Rapunzel corrected.

“Excuse me?”

“Helga here...” Rapunzel nodded toward her retinue. “And I eat for three. It's also not a bad idea to have just a little extra.”

“Three?” said Anna. “By yourself? I know you're...in the family way, but...”

“Pregnant,” said Rapunzel. “I'm _pregnant_.”

Anna blinked. “But isn't that...such a crass way to put it?”

Rapunzel shrugged. “Does it look like I care?”

“Um...” Anna looked at Elsa and they both shrugged.

“Ten, then,” said Elsa to Gerda.

Gerda curtsied, then bustled off.

Yes, things were going be interesting indeed. Anna wondered how many times that thought was going to cross her mind before things finally settled down. Assuming they ever would. But she could certainly live with that, too.

❅ ❅ ❅

Anna paced back and forth in the Royal Study.

“Anna,” said Elsa flatly, “you're making me dizzy. Again.”

Anna looked over at her sister, seated beside the large desk that had once belonged to their father. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly, “but if I stop moving, I feel like my whole body is going to cramp up. How does she do that, anyway?”

“Practice?”

“I guess. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around all of that.”

There was Rapunzel's life story, which was remarkable in itself. The magic hair, being kidnapped and raised as a commoner completely unaware of her true identity. Being returned on her birthday by the most wanted criminal in Corona and several of its neighbors. Later marrying that man.

But then there was the rest of it. Traveling to another world, being nearly crushed by a shard of exploding star. Having that shard fuse to her instead, being changed by it, and having to learn how to deal with the strange and dangerous powers that had given her. Going to the future and walking through a couple of thousand miles of mountains just because she could.

While Anna still thought Elsa was the most interesting person she knew, Rapunzel had to be the most peculiar and eccentric person in the world.

Elsa sighed. “You and me both. And that's on top of just what the two of us have been through the last few days.” She started to tear up.

Anna stepped over, bent down, and wrapped her arms around her sister. Elsa started to cry. “It's okay, Elsa. I got you.” She hugged her sister closely. After a few moments, “Just let it out.”

Anna ignored the coldness seeping through her linen dress. Another thing that past few days had taught her was that she could take a beating. She also knew Elsa was still afraid of herself and that the best way to address that was to make it not be a big deal, which meant ignoring some of it.

Or so Rapunzel had said. Anna and Elsa both supposed their cousin knew what she was talking about when it came to that sort of thing.

“I'm here,” Anna continued, “and I'm not going anywhere.”

A sudden spasm of pain shot through Anna's right hamstring. She gasped. Her hand few reflexively to that muscle. She drew back from Elsa.

“Anna?” said Elsa, her last tears tinkling onto the floor in solid little beads.

“Ow!” Tears welled up in Anna's eyes.

The door burst open and Rapunzel rushed in. “Sorry I didn't knock.” She scurried around the desk and knelt down next to Anna. “Move your hand,” she said.

“Wha...?”

“Trust me,” said Rapunzel gently.

Anna did. Rapunzel reached up under Anna's skirt.

“What are you...?”

“Cousin,” said Elsa, “I really must protest.”

Rapunzel ignored Elsa. Anna felt her cousin's bare hand on her leg. It was warm and growing warmer by the moment.

“Your Highness!”

Anna looked over to see Kai and Gerda crowding into the room just inside the door. Through her tears, she could see the expressions of concern on their faces.

Rapunzel looked up. “Don't worry,” she said calmly, her hand still on Anna's thigh, “I have it under control.”

“Your...Highness?” said Gerda. “What are you doing to the Prinzessa?” Gerda demanded.

“Heat compress,” said Rapunzel calmly.

After a few more moments,the pain in Anna's leg began to subside.

“Heating the muscle helps it relax,” said Rapunzel. “Is that better now?”

Anna nodded. “Much. Thank-you. That was the worst cramp I've ever had. What was that anyway?”

“Muscle spasm. Probably from overuse. Basically, your hamstring contracted suddenly and violently, which resulted in a pulled muscle.” Rapunzel removed her hand and stood up. “You can expect it to be sore for at least a day. I recommend eating a goodly amount of dandelion greens.”

“Why those?”

“They're high in potassium, which helps muscles function properly. It's important for neuromuscular interaction. You should also eat some extra protein to help the muscles recover better and faster. ” Rapunzel looked back at Gerda. “Herrin Gerda? Would you make a note about this? Hot compresses and potassium, specifically. We'll give you a list of dietary sources for that and other nutrients.”

“Is that more of what you learned in the future?” Gerda asked.

“Um,” said Rapunzel, “yes. I keep losing track of what I've learned where, when, and from whom. It all tends to blend together. Like I said up there, I'm not deliberately trying to confuse you. And when I say something's complicated, it's generally because of one of three things. Either I don't understand it myself, or I do understand it, but it would take too long to explain at that juncture, or it's not something I'm at liberty to discuss.

“We've found that most of the time when I say something's complicated, people back off. Sometimes they're curious enough to want to know anyway, but more often than not, they're intimidated enough by something that sounds difficult to understand and human laziness takes over. Which is usually fine by me because there are plenty of things I don't want to discuss and for any number of reasons.

“However, you two are both highly intelligent people. You're already dealing with complicated things, as well as highly classified information. Therefore, if you really want to know, I'll let you have it. But don't say I didn't warn you. Besides, I've shared an awful lot of it already.”

“How'd you know I was cramping?” Anna asked.

“I could sense the heat generated by the muscle activity. That, and you were in visible distress and holding your hand on that part of your leg less than an hour after vigorous exercise that you're not used to doing.” A smile spread across Rapunzel's face. “Oh, and by the way...” She suddenly wrapped an arm around Anna, the other around Elsa, and pulled both of them in for a tight hug.

Anna returned it and she felt Elsa do the same.

“I love you two,” said Rapunzel. “You both know that, right?”

Anna nodded against her cousin's shoulder.

Rapunzel pulled back and looked at Elsa. “You were crying,” she said evenly.

“Sorry,” said Elsa.

“Don't be. Not ever.”

Elsa sighed. “I was thinking about how I...I...”

“You can say it.”

“I lost everything. My parents. My realm. My sister.” Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Not much fun, is it?” It was more of a statement.

Anna recalled that part of Rapunzel's story, when she'd knelt there in the tower, alone and helpless, as Eugene had lain dying in her lap.

Rapunzel and Anna both gave Elsa another hug. Once Elsa had calmed down, Rapunzel pulled back again. “Right,” she said, “shall we get this show on the road?”

Anna cocked her head. “Show on the road?”

Rapunzel cocked a thumb over her shoulder. Anna hadn't noticed Prinz Eugene and Helga, both carrying a couple of odd-looking bundles.

“Oh, right. Sorry. Elsa?”

Elsa, visibly collected herself. “I'll be fine. Eventually.” She gestured in the direction of a low, rectangular table. “Please.”

Eugene and Helga stepped over and began to unpack several strange, boxy-looking items and odd-looking, stiff cords of some sort. The two of them began attaching the cords to the boxes. There seemed to be some sort of order to it, as though each end of each cord had to be attached to a specific place on a specific box. But to what point or purpose, she had no idea.

“What we're about to do now,” said Eugene, “is not magic. It's advanced technology from the twenty-first century. It's also highly classified. In fact, we're not technically supposed to have it.”

“He smuggled it back,” said Rapunzel, her arms crossed across her midsection. She sounded a little irritated. Anna suspected her cousin and her husband had discussed the matter and perhaps multiple times. She was all too willing to avoid asking about it.

Eugene pushed on something on one of the boxes. It clicked crisply, followed immediately by a soft whirring sound. He peered at one side of the box, as though waiting for something. After a couple of minutes, he reached over to a flat box and unfolded it as though it were a book. Then he pushed on something, sat back on his heels, and waited some more as it produced a similar whirring sound.

After a couple more minutes, he poised his hands over the horizontal surface of the “book” and tapped on it rapidly with his fingers. Then he reached over to a third box and pressed something on that. It, too, produced a soft whirring sound.

A rectangle of blue-ish light suddenly appeared on the wall. Helga knelt down, grasped the box, and twisted it around, maneuvering it until the rectangle shone on a pale patch of wall some two meters high and three wide. She set the box atop a couple of books, the light changing shape slightly as she did so. When she seemed satisfied, she stepped back.

A few moments later, the light on the wall changed color, showing a mountain scene. Eugene and Rapunzel stood on some snow, several other people to their left and right. All were smiling. It looked so real!

Anna forgot all about the ache in her leg. She walked toward the wall, then peered at it. It was almost as though it were a painting in light. She'd never seen anything like it. She held her hand up to it. The light shone on it. She quickly yanked it away, but it was just as it had always been. She passed it in front of the image, then back out.

She turned to look at the box. “ _Aggghh_!” she yelped, turning away as light speared her eyes.

“Well, don't look at it!” said Rapunzel.

“Now you tell me,” said Anna, squeezing her eyes shut. “What _is_ that anyway?”

“It's a projector,” said Eugene.

Anna took a few steps back, then opened her eyes. They watered profusely. She blinked several times. “That doesn't mean much,” she said. “Actually, it doesn't tell me anything.”

“My apologies,” said Eugene. “I should have warned you. This,” he continued, tapping on the light-box, “is called a digital projector. It has a very bright lamp inside that casts an image on any surface. This,” he tapped on the book-box, “is a laptop computer running Linux Mint thirteen.”

“I understood 'mint,'” said Elsa.

Eugene smiled thinly. “Didn't we warn you about the complexity of all this?”

Elsa nodded and Anna scratched the top her her head.

“That's why,” said Rapunzel, “we're limiting our explanations to _what_ all of this does and not going into how it does it. That, and we're not very solid on the how anyway. It's...” She looked at Eugene.

“This represents roughly four hundred years of technological development and scientific progress. It would take us a very long time to bring you both up to speed.”

Elsa crossed her arms and smiled. “Is that a challenge, Prinz Eugene?”

“Would you like it to be?”

“I think,” said Rapunzel, “that we're going off on a bit of a tangent. We can go into it later if you'd like. Actually, I've been itching to share it all with you anyway.”

“And you got after me for bringing all this back,” said Eugene. He seemed both puzzled and annoyed.

“Eugene, we've been over this. There's a difference between bringing back the knowledge and bringing back the artifacts.”

Elsa cleared her throat. “Not that all of this isn't interesting...because it is...but how is this...” She gestured with both hands at the table bearing Eugene's mysterious devices. She flinched slightly, glanced at her hands, then continued. “...going to help us deal with _that_?” She gestured in the direction of the fjord. A ripple flowed out from her hands, a sheet of ice erupting over a quarter of that wall.

Elsa cringed. Anna trotted over and put her arms around her sister. She seemed tense, but quickly relaxed. “Thank-you,” she whispered. “I needed that.”

“Any time,” Anna whispered back.

When Anna turned around again, the image of the mountains had been replaced with something else.

“If everyone would pull up a chair,” said Rapunzel, “we'll begin.” She paused. “Oh, one more thing. This is going to take a while. Has food been arranged? Because otherwise, I'm going to be eating the spiders and whatever else might be crawling around in here.”

Anna grimaced. She'd been trying to forget about what she'd seen Rapunzel do to the bear she'd killed up above the waterfall. It had been...well, Anna wasn't sure she had words for it. Disgusting only began to describe it, despite her cousin's insistence that diets worldwide varied a lot and that the idea of eating something regarded as disgusting was usually far worse than actually doing it.

“Gerda?” said Elsa.

“It should arrive momentarily,” said Gerda.

“Um...Rapunzel?” said Anna. “Are you...always this obsessed about food?”

Rapunzel raised an eyebrow. “You remember what I said up there.” She cocked a thumb in the direction of the mountain above town. “And believe me, it was a lot worse a few months ago.”

Anna nodded. She did remember what Rapunzel had said about the caloric requirements of walking all day through snow at high altitude, not to mention doing that while pregnant. Anna even felt she grasped the concept of a calorie after Rapunzel had explained it.

Rapunzel rolled her eyes and added, “I'm just waiting for people to tell me I'm going to get fat eating as much as I do. I don't think anyone really understands. But that's beside the point.”  
A knock sounded at the door.

“Yes?” said Elsa.

The door swung slowly open and three servants entered. Two carried large covered dishes and the third a tray with tea accoutrements. The trio bustled over to a table, set the platters down, and removed the covers. Two of them bustled back out again, the third remaining next to the table, hands folded in front of her apron.

Rapunzel stepped quickly over to the table and grabbed a piece of crisp bacon. She shoved it into her mouth, then devoured, in rather short order, two small quiches, a crescent roll, three cubes of cheese, and four sausage links, almost before the poor serving girl could react.

“There,” she said once she'd swallowed her last bite, “that should do for now.”

“If this is going to take as long as you're implying,” said Elsa, “I'd at least like a little tea first.”

“Oh, no,” said Rapunzel quickly, “by all means!” She paused. “Uh...not that you need my permission...sorry.” She cringed a little. “I'm getting ahead of myself again. We're standing by at your command, your Majesty.”

Anna wasn't entirely sure, but her cousin didn't sound cowed. By law and custom, Elsa was the superior of everyone else in attendance. Granted, there were a few konungar and drottningar of other nations present somewhere in the castle, but Elsa outranked everyone on the grounds that Arendelle was her country.

Rapunzel, however, didn't act like that. Rather, she seemed to regard Elsa as an equal and that she was having to make a concerted effort to restrain herself and defer to the Drottning. Anna wasn't all that surprised, though, given her cousin's background. On the contrary, she was half surprised the Coronan Prinzessa hadn't accidentally offended everyone in town one way or another. But maybe that was because Rapunzel was just so darned likable.

Rapunzel and Eugene proceeded to launch into their plan. Each detail was accompanied by at least one of those projected images. Some of them were some sort of drawing. Others were tables showing materials, equipment, cost analyses, time projections, manpower demands, and so forth. Others still were images showing various parts of Arnedelle Fjord as though Anna were standing at certain places on the castle wall or around town and looking at them herself. The thing was, it all made a tremendous amount of sense and that was without Anna having had any sort of schooling in any of it. And, as Rapunzel had predicted, it had taken much of the rest of the day.

“So,” said Rapunzel, once she'd finished, “we'll start first thing tomorrow.”

“When last I checked,” said Elsa, “Elsa Agtharsdottir, not Elsa Haroldsdottir, was Drottning Arendelle.”

Rapunzel nodded. “Then what is the Konigin's decision?”

Elsa thought for several pregnant moments. Then a wry smile spread across her face.

❅ ❅ ❅


	4. Chapter 4

❅ ❅ ❅

Kristoff Halfell usually hated not being able to see where he was going. Walking around the forest at night was one thing. Being towed across town by a certain Prinzessa of Arendelle while blindfolded was something else entirely.  


“Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on,” Anna repeated over and over. She sure was insistent.

Where was she taking him anyway? Then again, if he'd known that, it wouldn't have been a surprise. The sounds and smells told him he was out on the seawall. Other than that?

“Okay, okay,” he said indulgently, “here I come.” A moment later, his entire front slammed into something hard and metallic. He grunted. “Pole!” he exclaimed. Ja, that was going to leave a few bruises. Hopefully he'd be able to pass them off as results of his recent adventures involving Anna.

“Oops,” said Anna apologetically. “Sorry. Okay, okay here we are.”

And here was just where exactly? That girl could certainly be random.

“Oh!” Anna said absently, as if suddenly remembering something. She squealed softly, then slipped the blindfold off of his head. “I owe you a sled,” she said decisively.

Ah. Ja. That. He'd almost forgotten. It took him a few moments for his eyes to readjust to the light. Several paces away sat a sled not unlike his old one. It was larger, sturdier, and truly a thing of beauty.

“Are you serious?” he asked. He hadn't quite believed Anna when she'd originally promised to replace the one she'd more or less blown up. Well, he'd blamed her for it at the time, and not in so many words. But that was before he'd come to know her and, well, his priorities had subsequently shifted.

“Ja!” she squealed. “And it's the latest model.”

“No,” he said. “I can't accept this.” That was crazy, he knew. Of course he could accept it. It was just...well, with very few exceptions, he'd never really had anything he hadn't earned. It made him feel obligated.

“You have to,” Anna retorted. “No returns. No exchanges. Drottning's orders. She's named you the official Arendelle Ice Master and Deliverer.”

“What? That's not a thing.” Kristoff had been cutting and selling ice all his life and not once had he ever heard of anything even remotely like that. What in the Realms could Anna have meant? Perhaps a sort of royal patronage? He'd at least heard of those, though rarely in greater Scandinavia.

“Oh, sure it is,” said Anna dismissively. “And it even has a cup holder. Do you like it?”

“Like it? I love it! I could kiss you!” He abruptly grabbed Anna around the waist and hoisted her into the air. He held her there for a moment. What was he doing? One didn't simply pick up the Prinzessa of Arendelle! He set her back down, suddenly self-conscious. He let go and ran a hand through his hair. “I could,” he said. “I mean I'd like to. May I? We me. I mean...may we? Wait, what?” Oh, that was not going to end well. What was it with him that suddenly had him so tongue-tied around Anna?

Anna abruptly kissed him on the cheek. “We may,” she said in that adorable voice of hers.

Kristoff looked abruptly at Anna. Had she just said what he thought she had? Oh, that was probably going to get him into an awful lot of trouble. Was Anna worth it? Definitely! He leaned down and let his lips press against hers. They were delicious lips and apparently she thought the same.

“Mmmm,” he heard her moan.

Kristoff suddenly wished they were alone. On the other hand, being alone...or, rather, what the two of them would likely do with each other while alone...would most certainly land him in the dungeons for the rest of his natural life. For the present, he'd have to content himself with kissing Anna on her soft, delicate, delicious lips.

After some time, which Kristoff felt was both too short and too long, Anna pulled back breathlessly.

“We...we'll have to do that some more,” she said.

“I couldn't agree more,” he replied.

“But first...” Anna turned toward the square. “People of Arendelle!” Her voice carried pretty well. Kristoff was impressed. It took several moments for activity to grind to a halt, but once it had, all eyes had turned toward Anna. “Let all here assembled know that, by royal decree, this man...” She gestured toward Kristoff. “...Kristoff Halfell, has been named Arendelle's Official Ice Master and Deliverer!”

“Witness!” shouted a man.

“Witness!” followed a chorus of voices.

Anna turned back to Kristoff. “There,” she said. “Now it's really official.”

“Wait, you mean, all you have to do to enact an official policy, or make a new law is to just walk out here and yell it?”

Anna shrugged. “It's the Norse way. How else would we do it?”

Kristoff chuckled. “How else indeed?” He gently took Anna's hand strolled over to his new sled. He ruffled Sven's fur, then trailed his fingertips across the sled's lacquered wood. He let out a low whistle. “It's beautiful,” he said.  
He glanced up at Anna. “Almost as beautiful as you,” he added hastily.

Anna giggled and blushed.

“It's still too much,” he continued.

“Kristoff,” said Anna, “this isn't business. I mean, at least not the kind of business you're used to.”

“Oh? What other kind of business is there?”

“The political kind.”

“Uh-huh,” said Kristoff dubiously.

❅ ❅ ❅

Elsa drew in a deep breath, held it for several moments while her heart slowed back down. She forced her hands to unclench from each other. She still wasn't sure about the decision to forgo gloves. Nor was she sure about the lighter-weight linen. Yet both Rapunzel and Anna had insisted that being completely covered from the chin down, as she'd been for her coronation, would have been off-putting, which was exactly the opposite effect from what was needed.

“Elsa?” said Anna. She'd donned a simple dull green silk tunic over undyed linen.

Elsa nodded, then exhaled slowly and opened her eyes. “It's just...I've never done this sort of thing before.”

“Uh...I don't think anyone has. Not in a few generations, anyway. Don't worry, you'll be fine.”

“I had more time, weeks actually, to prepare for my coronation. But this?”

“It was your idea.”

“Ja, I suppose it was,” she admitted.

“Well...when last I peeked, the place was packed out there.”

Elsa cringed, the temperature around her dropping noticeably.

“But that's a good thing, isn't it? It means everyone's curious and they haven't fled in fear, right?”

Elsa tapped her chin pensively. “I hadn't thought about it quite like that.” She sighed. “It's going to take me a while to get over my...apprehension...about anything public, isn't it?”

Anna shrugged. “Uh...maybe...I guess? I think our cousin's right. Our people love us and they don't want you to be, as Hertogi Weselton so inaptly put it, a monster. And you're not! So this is an opportunity to show everyone that you're the wonderful Elsa some of us already know. Besides, I distinctly remember you standing on a boat and promising everyone some answers.”

Elsa chuckled. That was one of the many parts of that day that was still a bit of a blur. She'd still been a little giddy over the realization that love held the key to her troubles with her powers, not to mention having Anna back and Arendelle thawed out.

Still, it must have been a sight, and a rather undignified one at that, her tottering in a rowboat while trying to regally give a short impromptu speech that boiled down to that things had been a little unusual, that she needed some alone time and that she promised everyone some answers. Fortunately, nearly everyone had kept their distance, and although they'd all tried to go about their business, they'd all been watching her.

Yet the complications surrounding the actions of Prinz Hans and Hertogi Weselton both preceding and following Elsa's coronation, not to mention the ninja attack, had necessitated a few changes in Elsa's plans.

“And here I was thinking this was going to be mostly a...what did Rapunzel call it...a press conference.”

Kai strode purposefully into the room. “Your Majesty? Your Highness? I believe everyone is assembled, as requested.”

“Thank-you, Heera. Would you please announce us?”

Kai nodded, then turned about, disappearing. Moments later, Elsa heard his strong voice. “People of Arendelle! Drottning Elsa and Prinzessa Anna!”

Elsa exchanged a meaningful glance with her sister. “You can do it, Elsa,” said Anna. Elsa half-forced a smile and the two of them strolled toward the outer courtyard. A pair of guards pulled the doors open before them.

Elsa felt a certain sense of deja-vu. Only a few days before, she'd burst through those very doors. Somehow, it seemed so much longer ago than that. Memories of that night flashed through her mind.

Firelight from torches blazing from sconces set into the columns about the perimeter and from free-standing braziers distributed about the space in between cast everything in a mixture of yellow light and deep shadow. The gentle splashing of twin fountains merging with human voices in a mixture of surprise, awe, and then alarm. Concern on the face of the woman who'd asked her if she was alright. The contorted form of a fountain's ice towering over her. Then her own panic as the last shred of her carefully cultivated control finally slipped from her grasp while she fled her home across a freezing fjord.

The contrast with her previous public appearance was like, well, night and day. The early afternoon sun revealed everything in stark detail that jumped out at her. Sunlight glinted off the polished bronze torch sconces, the rock behind them permanently scorched from decades of nightly fires. A dozen banners—per fess vert and purpure a crocus flower Or—hung suspended against the inner walls.

As before, the courtyard was packed. More people lined the upper walkways surrounding the space. Children sat on their parents' shoulders and others still balanced on the rims of the twin fountains that splashed away as though nothing had happened.

Murmurs and whispers floated through the crowd: “There they are!” “It's them!” “Aren't they beautiful?” And so on for several moments until the murmurs turned into cheers that lasted for a couple of minutes that felt like an eternity.

Elsa blinked. The people, her people, still cheered her, even after all that had happened. She exchanged a glance with Anna. Her sister's smile seemed to say, “See? Everything's going to be fine.” Somehow Elsa believed it, though she knew with even greater certainty that getting to “fine” was going to take a monumental amount of work. Fortunately, work had the virtue of being its own distraction.

Unlike before, the multitude before her had gathered to hear what she had to say in the aftermath of the recent pandemonium. Arendelle looked to her. While she'd been groomed for it, she'd always assumed she'd be doing most of it from behind closed doors. But that had changed, bringing with it an opportunity she'd never before considered in the long years of her isolation.

Everyone bowed low, their cheering fading into a pregnant silence.

Elsa nodded to Kai, who then announced, “You have the Drottning's leave to make yourselves comfortable!” Everyone straightened up. The proceedings were about to depart from what Elsa had been taught by her father.

For the last few generations, the royalty of most of the kingdoms of greater Scandinavia had followed the emerging traditions copied from centuries-old English and French customs. Arendelle was at its heart Norse and Elsa felt it time to revisit some of the older customs that had been abandoned for one reason or another. She nodded again at Kai, who went on.

“Now resumes the Althing Arendellath!” Elsa had insisted on resuming the Althing, on the theory that the last such assembly hadn't really closed as such, at least not according to the library's records. “Presiding as Allsherjargothi, Elsa Agtharsdottir. Let all assembled be reminded that each person is bound by law and custom to respect the proceedings of the Thing and conduct his or herself in such a way as to lend dignity and decorum to these proceedings.”

“Would Heera Kai, Logsogumathur Althingath recite the laws of the Thing?” said Elsa.

Kai unfurled a scroll, the parchment stiff from age. Traditionally, the Law-Speaker recited the laws from memory, a practice that went back to a time before written records had become common. Most of the laws from that time had been codified into Arendelle Law, reworked to a point, then written down in actual books. What Kai proceeded to recite were matters pertaining specifically to the Thing, mostly constituting a public briefing on procedures and such. When he'd finished, he rolled the scroll and placed it atop a small trestle table.

For centuries, the Norse people throughout Scandinavia had practiced one of the oldest forms of participatory democracy in the known world. Under the old Norse ways, every community held assemblies called a Thing, where the local ruler, called a gothi and usually equivalent to a Jarl, heard and passed judgment on airings of grievances, negotiated trade with neighbors, and so forth. Once a year, an entire region held an Althing. In Iceland, the Althing was still held at a place called Thingvellir.

Within the context of the Althing, every representative was considered an equal and the Allsherjargothi the first among equals. Which meant herself, Anna, Rapunzel, Jarl Ragnar Eriksson, Jarl Egill inn Svarti, and Greifynja Hallveig Skeggisdottir. All the other visiting dignitaries were still present, of course, but only as foreign observers.

When Elsa had first mentioned her intention to revive the Althing, if only temporarily, Kai had initially expressed reservations. As Drottning, Elsa's word was law in modern Arendelle, a power she was suspending for the duration of the Thing.

But she'd argued that royal or not, she was an Arendeller and in light of events both recent and not, she needed to bond with her people and they needed to bond with her. Furthermore, pursuant to her father's administrative philosophy, things always went much better when people were involved in the decision-making process instead of simply ordered to do things. She'd insisted that in the long run, it would be best to publicly address the several outstanding matters that required such immediate attention.

Elsa straightened up a little, then addressed the assembly.

“Good afternoon, everyone and thank you all for coming. I am heartened by your presence.” That was no exaggeration. The level of attendance was truly staggering and demonstrated conclusively that, as Anna had stated several minutes before, the people weren't afraid of her. It was still overwhelming and Elsa knew that if she was to overcome most of a lifetime of forced near-isolation, she was going to have to take public appearances in small doses for a while.

“I understand,” she continued, “that several variations of multiple rumors concerning events surrounding my Coronation Day have been circulating. My sister the Prinzessa and I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.”

Elsa and Anna then proceeded to recount the salient points of the events of the past several days as they themselves had experienced them. They described things as objectively as possible, as they might have been witnessed by a stranger. The whole ordeal had been rather emotional for both of them. Moreover, their actions had produced certain consequences which had in turn led to certain complications.

To some extent, Elsa knew it would be their word against anyone else's, seeing as how there were precious few witnesses who'd be able to corroborate their versions of the events. Still, there was just so much that had happened out of anyone else's sight and for certain reasons that were about to become evident, it needed to be shared. While the sisters tried to be as brief as possible, it still took a while, especially with the inevitable interruptions.

Once they'd reached Anna's striking of Hans, Elsa turned to Kai. “Heera Kai, what's our first order of business?”

Kai consulted a piece of parchment. “The people and Crown of Arendelle have grievances against Hertogi Weselton.”

“I really must protest!” said Weselton.

The man had changed out of his dress uniform and into something that seemed more functional, a slightly richer purple than that worn by his men, but with the requisite piping marking his rank and a large silver edelweiss flower pinned to his left breast where he would otherwise have worn that plethora of medals he'd been showing off at Elsa's reception.

“Of course he does,” Anna grumbled under her breath.

“Hertogi Weselton,” Kai continued, ignoring the man's outburst, “you are charged with Attempted Regicide, Conspiracy to Commit Murder, and Inciting General Unrest.”

“Given what we've heard,” Anna added, “if we could, we'd also charge you with being extremely annoying.”

“This is outrageous!” said Weselton. “She tried to freeze us all to death!” He shook a finger at Elsa, as if to punctuate the point.

“Oh, please!” said Rapunzel.

The Coronan Prinzessa wore a muted purple dress, the barely-full skirts hemmed just below the knees, loose sleeves ending just below the elbows. Like the red tunic she'd worn before, and the lavender gown she'd worn on Coronation Day, the garment seemed designed to allow the wearer a full range of motion, a stark contrast to what Elsa had seen every other woman, including her own subjects--with the possible exception of Prinzessa Merida, who seemed to wear as much plaid tartan as her mother would allow--wearing on Coronation Day. A simple gold circlet bearing the Sun of Corona sat across her brow.

She looked Elsa in the eye. “If I may?”

Elsa nodded and Rapunzel continued. She was pretty sure she knew where her cousin was about to go and she had to admit the Coronan Prinzessa had a certain way with words.

“You're all Norse! Your winters are worse than ours, so don't tell me you're not prepared for this!”

“But in the middle of summer?” said Weselton.

“So what? I've been in blizzards in July. Do you know what we did? We found shelter and hunkered down until it passed.”

“Hunkered down?”

“Uh...ja.”

“And _was_ it going to pass?”

“I'll grant you this wasn't a natural storm. But that's not the point! The point is that you're Norse and you know how to deal with nasty winter weather!”

“My mustache froze!”

“Seriously? Herzog Weselton, your duchy is next to France, am I right?”

“Well...yes, but what does that have to do with it?”

“Your winters are relatively mild, so I think we can all agree that you're not used to it, which means that at best, you were, and apparently still are, overreacting.”

“Overreacting? Overreacting!?”

Rapunzel turned toward the populace, “Is there anyone here who really doesn't know how to deal with an unexpected snow storm?”

People looked at each other and mostly shrugged.

“The Prinzessa is right!” declared Jarl Ragnar. “We are Norse! No one knows winter like we do!” He paused. “With a few exceptions, of course...our Russian cousins...the Finns and Swedes.”

“That's what I thought. Which means, Herzog, that you ordered your men to kill the Konigin for no good reason. In most places that's considered an act of war and Arendelle is no exception.”

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Elsa asked.

Weselton opened his mouth, then closed it partly before saying, “I was under duress! I've been traumatized!”

“Something that _isn't_ whining?” added Rapunzel.

Weselton's hand flew up to his neck. “Ack! My neck hurts! Is there a doctor?”

Rapunzel snorted. “Oh, there's nothing wrong with the bloody thing, and you know it!” she sniped.

“How do you...?”

“It's complicated.”

Elsa suppressed a powerful urge to roll her eyes. “All that notwithstanding, Hertogi, an additional fact remains that you assumed that killing me would also end the storm. That was reckless. For all you knew, that would have triggered the Fimbulwinter.

“I suppose it's fortunate for you that I, perhaps more than anyone else here, understand what it is to be motivated by fear.

“But regardless of how annoyed we all are with you or how anyone here feels about what you've tried to do, there's the practical matter that Arendelle and Weselton are nowhere near each other. So going to war over this would be infeasible and therefore laughable. One or the other of us would have to march across at least one neighbor and I highly doubt that would go over well.

“Furthermore, 'open your gates so I may exploit your riches?' And your preoccupation with 'Arendelle's tradable goods' over the well-being of its people? I wouldn't bother denying any of that if I were you, by the way.”

“I just assumed,” Weselton spluttered.

“That the closed gates hid treasure of immeasurable value?” Rapunzel finished. “Don't be ridiculous. Of course there was such treasure behind the gates of Whiterun. Their names are Elsa and Anna!”

Elsa let a chuckle escape her throat. She exchanged a glance with Anna, whose cheeks blushed furiously, then smiled. “You're too kind, Prinzessa.”

Rapunzel smiled and shrugged slightly.

“Therefore,” Elsa continued, “I am minded to propose to the Thing that Arendelle henceforth and forever cease to do business of any sort with Weselton.” Elsa turned from the Hertogi. “What says the Thing?”

“Witness!” said Jarl Egill.

“Witness!” echoed the other representatives. The cry went up from the populace as well.

“Done!” said Elsa.

“You can't do that!” said Weselton.

“Oh, I think we can,” said Anna, “because we just did.”

“Next?” said Elsa, ignoring Weselton's persistent spluttering protests.

Kai consulted his parchment. “The people and Crown of Arendelle have a grievance against one Prinz Hans of the Southern Isles.”

A murmur floated through the crowd.

“I protest!” said Hans. He stood in the front row, surrounded by guards. He still wore his dress uniform, which, although stained with a few days' dirt and sweat, seemed no much the worse for wear.

“Of course he does,” Anna muttered. She raised her voice. “Before we continue, I'd like to clear up something else. Just in case it isn't obvious, and for the record, my engagement to Prinz Hans is over...severed...terminated...ended. The wedding is definitely _off_. I'm am _not_ going to be marrying that man...ever!” She pointed at Hans, as if to punctuate her statement. She glanced at Kai. “Heera Kai, would you be so kind as to make sure that's put into whatever legal language is needed to make that binding?”

“It would be my pleasure, Prinzessa,” Kai replied, not without a great deal of satisfaction.

“Witness!” said Kristoff, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically.

The rest of the crowd echoed back, also with a little more enthusiasm than Elsa might have expected. Then again, perhaps she should have. Ignoring Hans' scowl, Elsa nodded to Kai.

“Prinz Hans,” said Kai, “you are hereby charged with Attempted Coup, two counts of Attempted Regicide, Fraud, Conspiracy, and Breaking the Heart of Prinzessa Anna! How do you plead?”

“That last one's not a real charge!”

“It is now,” said Elsa irritably. “Again, how do you plead?”

“You can't do that!” Hans protested.

“Of course we can! You're guilty of several crimes against Arendelle and we're calling you on them. I ask again, how do you plead?”

Hand crossed his arms defiantly across his chest. “So let me get this straight. You're accusing me of all this, yet you have no witnesses? Yes, all these people have assembled here in this place. But otherwise, you stand alone!”

“No, she doesn't!” said Anna.

“Anna,” said Elsa quietly through gently-clenched teeth.

Anna ignored her. “I am Anna, Prinzessa Arendelle, and I stand with Drottning Elsa!”

“Of course you do,” said Hans derisively. “But...”

Another interrupted. “I am Merida inghean Fergus, first-born of Clan Dunbroch. And I stand with Queen Elsa!” Elsa heard a light groan from the same direction, probably Drottning Elinor.

“And I'm supposed to be intimidated?” said Hans.

“Aye!” declared Merida.

Hans chuckled. He opened his mouth, but another beat him to it.

“I am Elsa Rapunzel Firewalker Syele Agnes Clare Fitzherbert, Prinzessin Corona, and Bearer of Three Suns, and I stand with Konigin Elsa!”

Hans burst into laughter. “Four girls? Against the combined might of the Southern Isles?”

Elsa felt the air around her cool dramatically.

Then a young girl stepped from the crowd. “I am Yngvild Sturlasdottir! And I stand with Drottning Elsa!”

“And I!” said Greifynja Hallveig. Then another repeated the words...and another...and another...and another. That went on and on until Elsa had to fight to keep her jaw from dropping open.

She'd expected the people to support her, but more out of duty than anything. Yet there was something in their tone that suggested that support was voluntary and heart-felt. They did it because they wanted to.

“Well,” said Hans, once the noise had subsided, “this is all very touching. But there's one small problem. I'm not a citizen of Arendelle, if you haven't noticed.”

“Which is why you haven't been charged with Treason,” said Elsa.

“Yes, I'm glad you mentioned that. As I recall, I charged _you_ with Treason.”

“You don't have that authority.”

“Perhaps not. But your laws do. Did you, or did you not, kill Princess Anna?”

“Well...”

“Do I look dead to anyone?” said Anna loudly. Many shook their heads. “See? Not dead!”

“So you returned from the dead,” said Hans dispassionately. “Which is a miracle, no mistake about that. But Queen Elsa did, in fact, kill you, did she not? Shouldn't she therefore be the one charged with Treason?”

“In accordance with our traditions,” said Elsa, “it falls to those who've been wronged to levy those charges. In the case of a killing, that belongs in the hands of the family of the slain.”

“In this case,” added Anna, “the slain is alive...again. I choose _not_ to press charges. Of my family, my parents are dead, my sister is the one who killed me, and my cousin has yet to express an opinion on the matter. Prinzessa Rapunzel?”

Rapunzel shrugged. “Seeing as how Prinzessin Anna is, in fact, alive, that she harbors no ill will toward Konigin Elsa for killing her, and that pursuing the matter further will do far more harm than good, I say it should be dismissed. Besides, the whole thing has brought them closer together, which I think we can all agree is a good thing. Charging Konigin Elsa with Treason isn't going to solve anything and mainly because there's nothing to solve.”

“Besides,” added Anna, “I love my sister! I've already forgiven her, even before I threw myself in front of Prinz Hans' sword. Is there anyone here who thinks Drottning Elsa should be charged with anything related to my death?”

The silence was deafening. Then, “Nei!” cried young Yngvildr. Others picked up the cry until it filled the air, gradually tapering off.

“So I guess that's settled,” said Anna. She smiled at Elsa. “You're off the hook!” Then more quietly, “Besides, I think you've already punished yourself more than enough anyway.”

Elsa gave Anna a strained smile. “Which,” she said, “brings us right back to you, Your Highness. You did, in fact, abandon my sister to die and then actively tried to kill _me_. You personally attacked us and _that_ is an act of war. So the real question is whether you acted on your own, or in collusion with your family. If the former, we might be persuaded to simply send you back to the Southern Isles with a note nailed to your backside insisting that your brothers beat this sort of thing out of you.”

Grumblings and several random shouts floated about the assembly.

“If the latter,” Elsa continued once the noise had died down, “then we the people of Arendelle will have to decide how to respond. Southern Isles is very close to us. We don't want war. But an attempted conquest, which such a conspiracy most certainly is, cannot and will not be ignored. I assure you this irritates me greatly and you've seen what can happen when I'm irritated.

“Yet this is exactly why we should not make a decision until we've had some time to think about it. Fortunately for you, Your Highness, my father taught me never to make an important decision when angry or tired. And it is very sound advice. Are you, the people of Arendelle, willing to delay passing judgment on this matter?”

A few murmurs floated about. Then, “Ja!” said one. “Witness!” shouted another, that cry carried about the assembly.

“So noted,” said Kai.

“And do not think for an instant, Prinz Hans,” said Elsa, “that this is in any way settled. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“I do, actually,” said Hans. “I submit to your...assembly...” Elsa detected a distinct tone of disdain. “...that whether or not I've done any of these things you've accused me of is completely irrelevant. Many here clearly saw the Princess strike me. That sort of thing is usually regarded as one of those acts of war you've mentioned. This whole thing could be a conspiracy!”

Anna took a step forward, a barely-restrained growl rising in her throat.

“Furthermore,” Hans continued, “Princess Anna did, in fact, place me in charge...her exact words, as a matter of fact.”

“Because you manipulated me into trusting you,” Anna growled.

Hans appeared to ignore that. “And that happened because Queen Elsa abandoned Arendelle.”

“I did no such thing!” Elsa retored.

“Oh, really? We all saw you run off!”

Elsa exhaled, her breath a brief cloud of steam. “I fled out of fear. I panicked. I'd been keeping my powers a secret for so long because I was afraid of hurting anyone, and because I was afraid of how you might react to it. I thought that if I simply left, then that would solve everything and that Prinzessa Anna could assume the Throne. But I was wrong.

“Running away solved nothing. Prinz Hans, you were right about one thing. I _can't_ run from this! And I no longer want to. Because my sister taught me that love overcomes fear. You, the people of Arendelle, have demonstrated, just by being here and politely listening to me...us...that you're not afraid of me or what I can do.

“All of that gives me hope. Hope that, despite how...awkward...all this has been, and is likely to continue to be, I'll be a better ruler because of it. Please help prove me right!  
“  
Prinz Hans, the fact still remains that you tried to kill both of us in order to seize the throne of Arendelle for yourself and that you deceived everyone in your pursuit of that end.”

“I had Arendelle's best interests at heart!”

“Oh, and I suppose _you_ are in Arendelle's best interest?” said Anna.

“As a matter of fact, yes.”

“My Aunt Suzie's rear end!” snapped Rapunzel. “No _way_ in Niflheim are _you_ in Arendelle's best interest!”

“But...”

“Shut it! You tried to steal Arendelle. You lied about it. You got caught. Now you're trying to backpedal without sounding like you're whining about it. And you know it!”

Hans started to chuckle, though it sounded strained.

Rapunzel pulled the frying pan from her waist and pointed it at Hans. “Shall I beat it into you?” A pregnant silence ensued.

Elsa cleared her throat. “Prinzessa? Is that really necessary?” She had to say it. As Drottning, and as Allsherjargothi, it was her duty to keep the proceedings civil. Still, it was anyone's guess who wanted to beat Hans into a pulp the most.

Rapunzel looked at Elsa, then back at Hans. She snorted. “I suppose I'd enjoy it too much,” she growled. With a visible effort, she lowered her arm and returned the pan to its place. “Besides, you, Prinzessin Anna, and Herr Kristoff should be in line ahead of me anyway.”

Elsa couldn't dispute that. “The Prinzessa is right, however. Prinz Hans, your nefarious plot has been discovered. If I were you, I would accept defeat and go home. Unless anyone else here has any objections, I'm declaring you guilty of the crimes of which you have been charged. Fortunately for you, you are not a citizen of Arendelle and therefore we don't have the power to incarcerate, execute, torture, etcetera your...uh...”

“Mangy hide?” Anna suggested.

Elsa chuckled. “That'll suffice. But do not think for a moment, Prinz Hans, that your actions will be without consequence. As we've said before, we don't want war. But if war happens anyway, rest assured that the Southern Isles will suffer mightily and any victory you may eke out of your campaign will cost you beyond your country's ability to pay.

“You yourself have witnessed my power and I promise you that I _will_ bring it to bear to defend Arendelle and its people against all enemies foreign and domestic. Which includes _you_.” She practically growled the last word. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly,” said Hans.

“Then unless anyone else has any other ideas, it is my judgment that you be held under house arrest until the first ship is ready to depart our shores. You are never to set foot on Arendelle soil ever again. Doing so will be construed as an act of war and Arendelle will respond with the appropriate level of force including that which may result in your bloody carcass being returned to your own land and tossed unceremoniously onto one of your fishing docks.”

“Witness!” declared Greifynja Hallfeig. Most of the others present echoed.

“Done,” said Elsa. “Which leads us to our next item of business. Prinz Eugene of Corona, I believe you have some words.”

Eugene stepped forward, then consulted the item he'd called a clipboard. He proceeded to recount the events of the ninja attack a couple of nights earlier. “At this point,” he concluded, “all we know are that they're Hessian mercenaries. Details of who hired them are inconclusive. We're prepared to de-classify what we know, but it's not much, mainly because all their business was conducted through third parties. I would like to ask the assembly for permission to mount a field inquiry, meaning that we'll have to physically send someone to mainland Europe. At this point, it's the only way we'll be able to find out who was behind the attack.”

“What say you?” asked Elsa.

“Ja!” came a near-unanimous reply.

“So noted,” said Kai.

“There's a bit of a problem,” said Hans.

“Who asked you?” Anna spat.

“Most of the ships in the harbor are damaged.”

“He's right!” declared Weselton. “Most of them are unseaworthy and it's entirely _your_ fault! We demand...”

“I'm not finished!” Elsa snapped. “Prinz Eugene has a plan to clean up the harbor. Your Highness?”

Eugene again consulted his clipboard. “I realize this is a little complicated, so I'm going to be general for the sake of time. I'll go over the relevant minutia with those selected to supervise particular aspects of the operation.” He proceeded to launch into his plan.

Broadly, that plan was fairly straightforward. Any seaworthy foreign vessel not already departed was invited to do so. Any foreign dignitaries wishing to make passage on such a vessel would have to negotiate with her captain. After that, damaged ships were to be triaged, then repaired accordingly, no exceptions. As simple as it was in outline, it still took Eugene a while to go over the broad details.

Reaction to the plan seemed favorable, though Elsa had to privately admit she had a lot to learn about reading people. Eugene gave her a curt nod and a wink, which Elsa took to be a good sign. Where Elsa, Anna, and Rapunzel all suffered from a distinct lack of people skills, Eugene made up for it many times over. If he indicated that public response was favorable, that would have to be good enough.

When Eugene had finished, there was a silence so thick, Elsa could have carved it with a spoon. Then a single voice rose in song.

“From the mist of the mountains, a deafening call bellows down over the plains.”

Another voice joined in. “On a host of battle-worn ears it does fall, pushing out through the thunder and rain.”

More voices joined, until soon every citizen of Arendelle lifted their voices to the sky.

“We men of the north, we have suffered too long, the anger it swells in our veins  
“Of the spirited roars of lost warriors' song distant echoes are all that remain.  
“And my voice is my violence, clear the sky's frozen tears  
“And no more we'll be silent with this Arendelle song in our ears!  
“And we stand tall, sons of the snow, we will not fall under these blows  
“For our hearts they are hardy, our spirits are strong  
“And our voices are lifted into this Arendelle song!

Elsa watched Anna start to sing.  
“Conquer the anger and ravenous rage!  
“Make it a part of your power  
“Pummeling down, let your bloodlust engage  
“Under your force they will cower.”

Then she herself joined the song.  
“Feeling the fury so pure and so bright, breaking the bonds of surrender  
“Under the moon for our home we will fight and we will die to defend her  
“And my voice is my violence, clear the sky's frozen tears  
“And no more we'll be silent with this Arendelle song in our ears!  
“And we stand tall, sons of the snow, we will not fall under these blows  
“For our hearts they are hardy, our spirits are strong  
“And our voices are lifted into this Arendelle song

“These perilous peaks on the rim of the sky, I move in the midst of the clouds passing by  
“At the top of the world on a white doomful day, men of wisdom will show me the way

“And we stand tall, sons of the snow, we will not fall under these blows  
“For our hearts they are hardy, our spirits are strong  
“And our voices are lifted into this Arendelle song!”

And Elsa grinned.

❅ ❅ ❅

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In real-world history, the Icelandic Althing was dissolved in 1262 when Iceland was acquired by Norway. The Althing was reinstated in 1944 when Iceland regained its independence and is held in the capital of Reykjavik.
> 
> The song the people sing at the end of the chapter is actually "Sovngarde Song" by Miracle of Sound:  
> http://miracleofsound.bandcamp.com/track/sovngarde-song


	5. Chapter 5

❅ ❅ ❅

Kristoff followed a manservant through the corridors of Whiterun. He was more than a little conscious of the guard following him a few paces behind. The man leading him lacked a certain amount of confidence, evidenced by his barely-restrained fidgeting and a marked propensity to trip over his words more often than not. All of which suggested he was one of the many new staff hired on just before Coronation Day.

The guard, however, bore himself with poise. It was just as clear that he'd been on staff for a while and not just because he bore a Lieutenant's rank insignia.

They finally stopped in front of a door. Sunlight, probably streaming through a window on the outer wall of the room beyond, spilled out into the hall. Kristoff frowned slightly, glancing at the uniformed guards stationed outside the room. Why had that door been left ajar?

The manservant cleared his throat. “Your Majesty?” he said quietly.

“Ja?” replied the Drottning.

“Ice Master Halfell to see you, as requested.”

“Send him in, please.”

The man moved aside and gestured to the doorway. Kristoff pushed it open, then stepped into the room. Drottning Elsa rose from where she'd been seated on the other side of a large desk, its surface strewn with papers and other odds and ends.

Her simple, woad-blue linen dress nearly touched the floor, her sleeves wrist-length, and her neckline a bit higher than Kristoff would have expected for the middle of summer. Her snow-white braid fell down her back. He had to admit she was quite attractive and from the portraits he'd seen of her parents, it seemed to run in the family.

“Please come in,” she said.

Kristoff did, moving to close the door.

“Please leave it open,” she said.

Kristoff paused, then let go.

“More,” she instructed.

He grasped the knob and pulled.

“That's fine,” she said when the gap had reached half his own shoulder-width. “It...lets me hear people coming. Helps keep me from being startled. I trust you remember what happens when I'm startled.”

Kristoff nodded. How could he forget?

Elsa gestured to a chair near the desk. “Please, sit down.”

Kristoff suppressed a shrug. He still had very little idea how to behave around royalty. Or, rather, he had little idea how one was _supposed_ to behave. Sure, Anna hadn't been particular about him treating her as a person rather than a Prinzessa. And just as certainly, Elsa hadn't exactly insisted on any particular level of formality following the Thaw. And then there was their cousin, Prinzessa Rapunzel, whose behavior seemed incongruous with practically every expectation known to man.

He perched himself rigidly on the edge of the indicated chair.

“You're stiff,” Elsa said.

“Well,” said Kristoff, “quite frankly...your Majesty...I'm not entirely sure how to behave.”

Elsa cocked an eyebrow. “What's wrong with what you were doing before?”

“It's just that...well, I've been watching people. There's an awful lot of ritual, I guess you could say. It's all 'Lordship' this and 'Excellency' that and so on. It's...confusing. But people seem offended if others get it wrong.”

“Protocol, we call it. And you're absolutely correct. It is confusing. And between you and me, most of those people have sticks up their backsides.” She paused. “I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't repeat that.”

Kristoff nodded. “My relationships tend to be merchant-customer.”

Elsa frowned. “My sister is a customer?”

Kristoff squirmed slightly. “Well...not all of them, of course.”

She nodded. “And that is why I've asked you here.”

“I didn't know I had a choice.”

Elsa gave what Kristoff could only describe as a half shrug. “Yes and no. The point is, you and I have a bit of, shall we say, personal business to discuss.”

“We do?” Kristoff felt perspiration well up beneath his clothing, despite the coolness of the morning.

Elsa nodded. “My cousin has referred to you as Anna's intended.”

“Uh...she has?”

“Ja. She has.” She braced her hands on the desk and leaned toward Kristoff. “Are you?”

“I...uh...don't know.”

Elsa held Kristoff's gaze for what felt like forever, her ice-blue eyes, a few shades lighter than Anna's, boring into him. A rush of cold air floated from her direction. “That's a good answer.” She rocked back slightly, then picked up a stack of papers. “Do you know what these are?”

He shook his head. “No idea, nei.”

She held them out toward him. He took them with both hands, then peered at the one on top. He couldn't read it. He looked at the next piece of paper. Same thing.

“I'm afraid I only know Norwegian, Swedish, Saami, and a little bit of German,” he said apologetically.

Elsa grunted. “We'll have to remedy that,” she said. “Those are marriage proposals. For Anna.”

Kristoff felt his heart leap up into his throat. He forced it down, then looked sharply at Elsa. “I...I'm not sure how to respond to that.”

“Neither am I. And as Drottning, I have to reply to every single one of those one way or another. I know how I _want_ to respond. But that depends entirely on you.”

“M...me?”

Elsa extended her hand again and Kristoff relinquished the papers. She set them back where they'd been before. “Do you, or do you not, intend to court my sister?”

Kristoff's tongue suddenly slammed against the roof of his mouth. He swallowed hard.

“Keep in mind,” Elsa continued, “that there is only one correct answer. That answer is the honest one. Plenty of people, especially those who came here specifically for my coronation, would tell me whatever they think I want to hear. I expect better from you.

“You're an honest man, Kristoff. You don't pretend to be what you're not and you treat everyone you meet, particularly me and Anna, like actual people. I appreciate that. That, among other things, is why I like you. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation. And I'd have to tell Anna no again. And the last time I did that...things didn't go so well.”

“The...ice crazy...thing?”

Elsa chuckled. “That's an interesting way to put it, but ja. My question still stands. And what you say to me dictates what I say to them.” She tapped the stack of marriage proposals. Kristoff heard the distinctive crackling of very thin layers of ice breaking with each tap.

Kristoff took a deep breath, held it, then let it back out. “I love Anna. And I think she loves me back. I know we've only known each other for a few days. I don't really have any idea if that's fast or slow. I've kind of been a hermit most of my life, so I really have no idea how these things are supposed to go.”

“But do you intend to court her?”

“See, I don't know what that means. Well, vaguely, but vague isn't good enough, is it?”

“Fortunately, we have a library. Please use it.” She paused. “How well do you read?”

“Well enough...I think.”

Elsa nodded. “In my estimation, you've been courting her already anyway. But I do insist that you do it properly. That is the condition on which I give my consent. I love my sister.”

“And if I break her heart, you'll break my arm, right?”

Elsa smiled wryly. “Something like that. Sadly, my father isn't here to do that, so it falls to me.” She exhaled heavily. “We royals don't usually have the luxury of marrying for love. If we're lucky, we eventually come to love the spouses chosen for us. It was that way with my parents and with my cousin Rapunzel's as well, from what I recall of what you might consider to be bedtime stories.”

Kristoff frowned. “That's a bedtime story?”

Elsa chuckled ruefully. “You'll find that things are...a bit different for us. Whether that's good or bad I haven't decided. At this point, you need to know two more things. First, your relationship with my sister gives me a good reason to reject these...” She tapped on the stack of papers, sheets of ice blooming over them. “...and a good excuse to keep her here in Arendelle. Second, should you marry Anna, your life as you know it will end.”

Kristoff felt a sudden rise of panic. Fresh sweat beaded up beneath his clothing. He gulped.

Elsa grinned, then chuckled. “Nei, not like that.” The teasing was evident in her tone. “What I mean is that you'll have to give up your ice business permanently. Ja, I realize I just made you our official Ice Master and Deliverer, which is something I think will help the two of you avoid any, shall we say, inconvenient encounters?”

He felt himself squirm involuntarily. If the Drottning was trying to make him squirm, she was doing an admirable job of it.

“The point is that you'll have to assist her in all of her duties, most of which will involve assisting me. Furthermore, it's her responsibility to produce an heir to the throne of Arendelle.”

Kristoff's brain ground to a screeching halt. “Uh...d...did you say, heir?” He barely heard his voice crack on that last word.

Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Do you have a problem with that, Herre Halfell?”

Kristoff tried to reply. He opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. But nothing came out. Not that he really had much of an idea about what to say to that. Him? Father to children? And not just any children, but the future Konung or Drottning Arendelle!

“Please close your mouth, Kristoff,” said Elsa. “We are not a cod fish. It may not have occurred to you that someone with my...condition...should probably not attempt intimacy. It would...not end well for any man I would take as a husband. The results would be messy in several exquisite ways, none of which would be very good for Arendelle.

“Nei, Anna will have to be the one to continue our line. It's something my parents and I have known for quite some time. And in case you're wondering, ja, they did talk to her about that before...before they died. They were not very forthcoming about just how she took it, only that she accepted it as her duty. I mean to discuss it with her myself and while it's not something I fancy ordering her to do...which I can...it's nevertheless unavoidable.

“As a practical point, we need you. I'm given to understand that you have a deep-seated suspicion of people in general. I'm sure you have some, as Prinz Eugene puts it, back-story about that. But that's a bit outside the scope of this meeting. What's relevant is that Anna is far too trusting and I don't have nearly enough experience dealing with people.

“Arendelle is vulnerable, though I'm trying to make it look otherwise. There are plenty of people other than Prinz Hans who would try to take advantage of us in one way or another. Of course, that's nothing new when it comes to politics, it's just more so as of late. And we need you and your ability to, as my cousin puts it, cut the crap, to help us avoid any unpleasant entanglements.

“Now, as I'm sure you've surmised, I'm going to be rather busy for the foreseeable future. Even following Prinz Eugene's plan, I expect it to be a while before all of our visitors are safely on their way back to wherever their homes are. In the meantime, a number of them are likely to be thorns in my side. It's not something I relish and I'm not at all certain I won't, shall we say, experience a relapse. If you take my meaning.

“That said, I'm sure I can trust you not to complicate things with my sister. Are we clear on that?”

Kristoff nodded. He thought he knew what Elsa had meant by that. Though he'd never been particularly good at picking up on subtlety.

“I have a string of meetings today and I'd like to go through them all as quickly as possible.”

Kristoff understood that hint easily enough. He stood, then bowed slightly and began to turn.

“Kristoff?” said Elsa. “One more thing.” She stepped around her desk and up to Kristoff. She paused, then put her arms around him. “You have my permission to return the favor,” she muttered.

Kristoff did.

After several moments, Elsa pulled back and looked him in the eyes. “I think you'll make an excellent brother-in-law. Now go and prove me right.”

Kristoff smiled, nodded respectfully, then backed out of the room. Once he'd taken a few steps down the hall, he exhaled heavily, then ran a hand through his hair. That certainly hadn't been the sort of meeting he'd expected when Elsa had summoned him.

He made his way through the halls to the library after asking for directions. Standing there, looking at more books than he'd known existed, he felt more lost than ever. Where was he to start? He could simply walk up, look at one book, put it back, look at the next one, and so forth until he found one that seemed helpful. But that could take all day, maybe even all week at least. He was pretty sure he didn't have that much time. Or had that been Elsa's plan all along, to keep him occupied?

But that was silly. Sure, the whole thing involved the Prinzessa, and Kristoff completely understood how protective the Drottning was of her sister. But Elsa herself had stated that Anna had to supply an heir and Kristoff hadn't led so isolated of a life that he didn't know how children happened. Besides, he still had ice to haul, and that by itself would keep him plenty busy.

“Kristoff!” A familiar voice yanked him out of his reverie.

He spun around as Anna flounced over to him. “Um...heilsa,” he said.

For a few moments, Anna stood there beaming. The silence stretched into what felt like eternity. Then the smile slipped from her face in what appeared to Kristoff to be slow motion. “Is...something wrong?” The concern was obvious in her voice.

That was one of the things Kristoff appreciated about Anna. She didn't hold back with anything and that was something he'd noticed at their first meeting up at Oaken's.

“Well...” He wasn't quite sure how to talk about it. He took a deep breath, then let it out. “I was in here looking for a book.”

Anna giggled. “You've certainly come to the right place. But why so tense about it?” She paused. “Wait...you can't read?”

“What? Oh...no, no, I can read. Maybe not that well, but...” He paused. “How does one find a specific book in here if one doesn't know where it is?”

Anna tapped her chin pensively. “Uh...no idea. Usually my tutor brings them to me.”

“Hmmm. That's not helpful.”

“Just what is it you're trying to find?”

“Something on...uh...courtship.” He half-swallowed that last word. Why was he having such a hard time talking about it?

“Um...courtship?” Anna asked nervously.

“I...uh...had a discussion with your sister. Well, actually, she had a discussion with me...mostly.”

Anna cocked her head. “Wait...is there some sort of...expectation that comes along with that Ice Master and Deliverer title? Because if there is, she must have forgotten to mention it. I should go ask.” Anna abruptly spun around and flounced out of the room. She paused in the doorway to look back over her shoulder and flutter her eyelashes at Kristoff. Then she was gone, leaving him with a noticeably elevated pulse and at least the beginning of a noticeably elevated...something else.

Kristoff exhaled heavily and groaned. It would figure that life wouldn't make things so easy for him. He supposed it was just as well. He began to scan book spines, one after another. Not all of them had writing on them and he had to pull quite a few and open them to find out. Even then, it wasn't always helpful. The Drottning was right about one more thing: Kristoff was going to have to learn more languages, if for no other reason than to navigate the royal library.

After another half an hour, he gave up and made his way back to the stables. Sven perked up as Kristoff walked in. He sat down heavily on a hay bale. “Hey, buddy,” he said, reaching over to ruffle Sven's fur. “You wouldn't believe the sort of day I've been having.”

Sven grunted inquisitively.

Kristoff chuckled. “Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you.” He proceeded to vent his not-so-little conversation with Drottning Elsa and his exercise in frustration in the library.

“I mean,” he continued, “it's not like I'm opposed to the idea. Well, fine, it scares the saurr out of me. Maybe that's why I've been so tongue-tied around Anna? But I wasn't like that before. She's going to think I don't like her. Well, we kissed the other day, so maybe she doesn't think that and...”

Kristoff noticed Sven's expression. It was the same one he'd worn a few days ago, just before he'd turned back around to go save Anna, the expression that said, “Seriously?”

“Yeah, you're right,” said Kristoff. “Maybe I am overreacting. But seriously, can you see me with children? Not just any children, but with Anna's? Mine and Anna's? Me being the father of the future Konung or Drottning Arendelle? It's just...I don't know. Overwhelming, I guess. Know what I mean?”

Sven cocked his head.

“No, I guess you don't. Love's not that complicated with reindeer, is it?”

Sven shook his head.

Kristoff chuckled, then ruffled Sven's fur again. “And that's what I like about you.” He shook his head, then stood up. He still had no idea how to go about properly courting Anna. But in the meantime, he still had an ice business to run and that was one thing he already knew intimately.

❅ ❅ ❅

Elsa scanned the document in her hand for what felt like the...twentieth time? She hadn't bothered to count. The text it contained had blurred under many layers of ice. She sighed. Her life had been easier during her years in seclusion. Lonely, yes. Depressing, yes. And she'd hated every minute of it. But it had certainly been less of a headache.

Nevertheless, Rapunzel had been right. Elsa had locked herself away out of fear. Which had, in fact, led to anger, which had led to hate, which had led to abject suffering. And that had only been a decade! What sort of dark witch would she have become had she remained in her chambers, or up on the mountain in her ice palace? Her cousin would have been able to answer that with one word, a single name: Gothel.

Elsa glanced again at the iced-over document, now covered with yet another layer. She knew there was a reason she preferred the Elder Futhark over Gothic script. The bold, straight lines of the former were much easier to read through ice than the latter's flowing, uneven curves. Then again, she doubted whomever had originally created writing, whether the Norse or the Roman alphabets, had ever intended it to be read through ice.

She popped her fingers away from the ice that had formed over them, small shards of it snapping and tinkling away, and dropped the paper onto her writing desk. It made a heavy _thunk_ no paper had any right to make. That heaviness reminded her of whose desk it had once been. She ran a finger over the wood, trailing an ephemeral film of crystalline ice across its surface. She sighed again.

Life just wasn't fair. Neither was death. She knew that, but the knowledge didn't keep her from brooding over it.

A knock at the door yanked her out of her brooding. “Ja?” she asked.

The door opened and a lady-in-waiting stepped in. She curtsied appropriately. “Prinzessa Elsa...excuse me, Rapunzel...to see you, your Majesty.”

“Please send her in.”

The servant retreated and Elsa rose to meet her cousin, who seemed just as cheerful as ever.

“Good afternoon, cousin,” said Elsa.

“Good afternoon yourself,” said Rapunzel.

Elsa gestured to a chair. Rapunzel stepped over and lowered herself onto it, her perpetually bare feet protruding conspicuously from her high-hemmed skirts. “I take it you received my missive?” she asked.

Elsa nodded. She reached across her desk and picked up a stack of papers. “These are marriage proposals. For my hand. There are thirty-seven of these. Thirty-seven!” She dropped the papers, a flurry of ice crystals puffing out from them. She picked up another stack. “And these, all twenty-two of them, are for my sister's.” She dropped that stack, too, with another puff of powder. “And I find fault with every single one of them for one reason or another.”

Elsa picked up the object that was more ice block than the parchment Rapunzel had sent to her that morning. “This one, on the other hand, is an interesting idea,” she said, brandishing the icy slab. She looked directly into her cousin's eyes. “Though I'm not sure what to make of it.”

“There is precedent,” said Rapunzel.

“Yes, but it's almost always reversed.” It was, apparently, quite common for a young woman, even a girl, to be betrothed to a man many years, sometimes decades, her senior. At least, that was what her parents had told her, and she had no reason to suspect otherwise. “You do realize the nobility would be in an uproar if I were to accept this, don't you?”

Rapunzel nodded. “Fortunately, nobility need shaking up a bit now and then. Preferably more now than then. They tend to cling a bit too tenaciously to their preconceived ideas.”

Elsa wasn't sure about that. Most of her experience had been in the form of notes and papers passed back and forth through her suite door. From time to time, she'd had a conversation with one of her advisors about something. Until a few days before, the Regent had possessed all the decision-making power, of course, so all that had been training and formality.

“Trust me,” said Rapunzel, “they do. Fortunately, you'll notice I included a severance clause.”

Elsa frowned at the document. “I did, yes. I also noticed your diction. It's...extremely compressed.”

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. “The usual contracts can be...so tedious.”

“I know! All the wherefores and herebys and so on and so forth.”

“Ugh! It's pretty and flowy for certain, but it's just so cumbersome! Taking a whole page to say something that only needs a few sentences just wastes paper, ink, and time. I don't know about them, but I have better things to do! Like visit with my people and smooch with my husband.”

Both women giggled.

Elsa cleared her throat. “All that notwithstanding, this could irritate a lot of other people. Thirty-eight marriage offers!”

Rapunzel giggled. “Twenty-six for me. And that was apparently the second time around.”

“Second time?”

“My father had accepted one from England when I was born. He said there had been twenty-three that time. But England broke it off a few years after my kidnapping. They were apparently a bit impatient.” Rapunzel smiled. “Not that I mind, of course.”

Elsa chuckled. “I seem to have picked up several of your, shall we say, rejects? A few of them are obvious. Even stated it right out.” She rolled her eyes. “Most of the others...well, I had to read between the lines.”

It was Rapunzel's turn to roll her eyes. “What is it about the highborn that makes so many of them so...audacious?”

Elsa nodded in agreement. “Several of them retracted in the wake of my little revelation and I expect a few more by the end of the day, though there are a few new ones.”

“Let me guess,” said Rapunzel indignantly, “they're interested in using you to help them conquer the world.”

Elsa exhaled, a film of ice radiating across the floor. “In a couple of cases, that's fairly clear. The others...seem more interested in whatever societal status they could claim by being married to the Snow Queen. I can, of course, choose only one anyway. So it saves me having to come up with plausible-sounding reasons to reject them all.

“Anna, on the other hand, is a special kind of problem. She tends to lead with her heart, rather than her head. Which is both a strength and a weakness. How many people do you know who fall in love twice in the same week?”

Rapunzel shrugged. “You have to admit, though, that she and Kristoff make an adorable couple.”

Elsa sighed. “That's what concerns me.”

“Why? They're quite suited for each other. They're a lot like me and Eugene, as a matter of fact.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Kristoff isn't of noble birth.”

“So? Neither is Eugene, if you'll recall.”

Elsa nodded. “So he isn't.” She sighed. “If Anna were to walk though this door right now and ask me to bless her marriage to Kristoff, I would want to say yes. Really, I would.”

“So why wouldn't you? If it's about appearances, grant him a title and _then_ let her marry him. There's precedent for that.”

Elsa smiled. “Indeed there is. And it's worth considering. He does make her happy. Genuinely so. Kristoff might not bring connections or wealth or an army or any of that. But he is...what was that expression you used? The real deal?”

Rapunzel nodded.

“And that's worth a lot to me. That's why I've instructed him to court my sister. Properly. Which should keep the two of them busy enough...and no, not in that way, cousin...I hope...because...anyway, it should give me a little more time to think about their situation. Arendelle has had more than its fair share of sorrow as of late.”

She picked up the chunk of ice. Its surface had frosted slightly. “Which leads me back to this. It poses its own problems. On the one hand, it buys me a fair bit of time. You know what's it like to be shut up for years and then suddenly released. You know what it's like to want to catch up on what should have been your life. Few others do. That's one reason I find your proposal appealing. It gives me time to rediscover myself...and get to know my sister.

“A second is that I am _extremely_ uncomfortable with the idea of physical intimacy. Less for my own sake and more because I have no idea how my powers might manifest themselves under those circumstances.”

Rapunzel grinned. “You mean in the throes of a body-rending orgasm?” she said cheerily.

Elsa felt herself blush furiously and heard the crackle of a rapidly-expanding film of ice. “Um...ja, that. And you might be right that only someone like you would be able to withstand someone like me in the bedchamber.

“The third reason is that the idea of merging our respective powers is one I find fascinating.”

Rapunzel shrugged slightly. “That's what gave me the idea.”

Elsa chuckled. “The other problem, however, is that assuming I accept your proposal, my future husband hasn't even been born yet. That wouldn't be an issue were I, say, four years old. As it happens, I'm old enough to be his mother. And, of course, there's no guarantee the one you're carrying is a boy, and the same with the next one, to say nothing of when or if you'll bear another.

“Furthermore, the pressure for me to choose a husband will only increase and I doubt it will take long.”

“It worked for Konigin Elizabeth,” said Rapunzel with a shrug.

“So it did. Though as I recall from my studies, she was still under constant pressure.

“And last but not least, I'll be at least forty, possibly forty-five by the time such a marriage would take place. Which makes bearing a legitimate heir extremely dangerous. I'd have to either take that risk anyway, or continue to leave that aspect of Arendelle's future to Anna.”

Rapunzel tapped on her own abdomen. “Ja, I've considered all that.” A pause. “Actually, Eugene spent a full ten minutes going off about it. The man really does pay attention, despite his outward disdain for it all.” She glanced down. “And...I have a feeling this one's a girl anyway. So please don't feel...obligated.”

Elsa chuckled. “Actually, despite all the drawbacks, I'm sorely tempted. If for no other reason than to...how'd you put that...stick it to the rest of Europe?” Both women laughed.

“So I'm prepared to give you an official 'maybe,' bordering on a tentative yes. That at least gives me more breathing room and a certain amount of plausible deniability. Some of these proposals are simply out of the question for various reasons, so it'll be easy for me to tell them that those proposed unions would not be good for Arendelle. The others...I still have room to say that I'm considering other offers. Which is true, and buys me a little more wiggle-room.”

“You've clearly spent a lot of time thinking about all of this.”

Elsa nodded gravely. “When one is holed up most of the time, with little else to do, that tends to happen. It was especially so the month leading up to my coronation. I knew the proposals would be coming. In fact, many of them already had. Despite thinking about it over and over and over, few solutions presented themselves. Of course, that was also when I still planned to retreat back to my chambers following the reception party.”

Rapunzel smiled. “I'm glad you didn't. Most everyone is.”

Elsa felt her own lips curve upward. “So am I, actually. Still...” She broke off and looked toward the window. “What is that noise?” she asked, a note of irritability sneaking into her tone.

“Hmm,” said Rapunzel. “It sounds like breaking ceramic. And...a bow string.”

Elsa and Rapunzel looked at each other, then stood up and scurried across the room and leaned out the window. Elsa barely noticed how firmly her cousin's shoulder pressed into her own.

Rapunzel started to laugh.

Elsa looked at her cousin. “What?”

Rapunzel just pointed. Elsa gazed in that direction, searching for whatever it was her cousin wanted her to see. A flash of something white caught her attention, the sound of breaking ceramic following a couple of seconds later from the same direction. Too much vegetation blocked her view.

“What in the world?” she asked.

Rapunzel tittered. “Your sister and Prinzessin Merida seem to be having a little bit of ar and ar.”

“A bit of what?”

“Rest and relaxation.”

Elsa leaned out of the window and squinted. “How can you tell? There's too much...greenery in the way.”

“It helps to look with more than just one's eyes.”

Elsa cast Rapunzel a sideways glance. “That's easy for you to say.”

“It's...hard to explain. At least, the way I do it.”

“A sort of sixth sense, you said?”

Rapunzel nodded. “Listen,” she said casually.

A silence ensued, broken only by the sounds of voices floating up from below. Elsa blinked. “And?”

“What do you hear?”

“Laughter?”

Rapunzel giggled. “What else?”

Elsa cocked her head slightly. “A slight thrum of something...then a shattering of...” She gasped. “Oh, you have _got_ to be...” Elsa let out a grunt of frustration, followed by the crackling of ice as it spread around the window frame.  


Elsa pulled back from the window, spun around and stalked across the room, trailing ice along the floor behind her. She flung the door open and stepped into the hallway.

“Your Majesty?” said Gerta.

“Not now,” Elsa growled. She strode swiftly down the hallway, the loud cracking and popping of rapidly-thawing ice echoing in the halls behind her as Rapunzel followed. What was it with that woman anyway?

Elsa made her way down the corridors, finally emerging into the gardens between Whiterun and the royal burial grounds at the base of the rocky slopes that rose sharply up to the highlands above town.

She rounded a grove of conifers and lurched to a stop, drawing a sharp gasp. She felt more power ripple out from her, and heard the sharp crack of ice shards piercing wood. She stood there blinking, ignoring the glint of sunlight off the thin, standing ice waves that surrounded her. Her mouth hung open.

Anna looked in her direction and grinned. “Elsa!” she gushed.

Elsa took in her sister holding an empty salad plate, a small table stacked with what looked like at least a hundred more, a frazzled-looking maid standing next to it, Prinzessa Merida with an arrow to her bow string, and scores of small, white objects littering the wide turf nearby.

“Anna! What are you _doing?!_ ” Elsa half-bellowed. More cold and ice rippled outward, icicles shoving through the still-standing waves and sinking into trees and shrubs.

“We're...um...shooting skeets?”

“With the dinner ware?”

“Oh, relax,” said Anna dismissively. “We have eight thousand of these!”

“That doesn't matter!”

“Why not?” asked Rapunzel.

Elsa spun and half-glared at her cousin. “What do you mean?”

“I don't know about you,” said Rapunzel, cradling a bleeding hand, “but I'd consider a couple hundred plates to be a small price to pay for a little ar and ar. Besides, I think they should be using the good china. It makes a zippier ping.”

“A zippier ping?” Elsa could barely believe her cousin was supporting such wasteful behavior.

Rapunzel just nodded.

“Rapunzel, that _is_ the good china!” Elsa shouted, gesturing toward the stack of plates.

The maid yelped in alarm.

Elsa looked to see the plates encased in a thick shell of ice. She sighed, letting her arm fall to her side.

Anna let out a whimper. “We were bonding,” she complained.

“Over what?”

“I already said. Skeets.”

Elsa cocked an eyebrow at Rapunzel. “Did you put her up to this? Because I have no idea what a skeet is.”

“Well,” said Rapunzel, waving her injured hand, “I may have told her about a few British pastimes.”

“Oich!” said Merida. “Rapunzel, your hand!”

Rapunzel glanced at her hand. “I'll be fine,” she said dismissively.

“But...”

“I heal quickly. That doesn't mean I won't kill and eat a shore bird while we're out here.”

“You wouldn't,” said Anna.

“If it moves, I'll eat it.”

Anna glanced across the yard. “Even those goslings over there?”

“Especially those goslings over there.”

“Nei,” said Elsa flatly, “you are _not_ going to eat those goslings.”

Rapunzel cocked an eyebrow.

“They're mine and I said nei.”

Rapunzel nodded graciously. “As you wish,” she said.

“And these plates are mine, too, actually. Anna, I really wish you'd have asked me first.”

“You were busy,” Anna replied darkly.

Elsa exhaled. “I'm sorry. It's been...a full day. In the future, please don't hesitate to hover. In fact, I insist. There will always be a few minutes between meetings. Furthermore, I'm going to need your help. Mama helped Papa, but so long as I remain unmarried, I need you to do the things she did. Which means I need you at my meetings. Well, most of them.”

“No, I'm sorry. I...kind of got used to you not being around. So I've always spent my free time doing whatever struck my fancy.” She deflated. “I...suppose we'll be going in now.”

Elsa felt a smile spread over her face. “Maybe not.” She looked across the grass. It would have to be cleaned up, of course. She looked at the ice-encrusted table. It would thaw...eventually.

Elsa held out her hands, palms toward each other. A large snowflake grew between them. She made a flicking motion and the flake sailed through the air, spinning upward as it went.

Merida drew, followed the flake's motion for a moment, then released. Her arrow hit one of the flake's points halfway from the center. The sound of breaking ice was as clear as crystal. Then both arrow and ice fell to the ground.

Elsa shot a crooked grin at Anna. She formed another flake, then handed it to Anna. Her sister's face lit up as she took the ice in her hands.

“Whoo, that's cold,” she said. She hurled it up into the air. Merida shot it on center, her arrow lodging in the ice before both tumbled to the ground.

“And that,” said Elsa smugly, “is why you should have come to me first.”

Anna started to laugh. Elsa joined her. Soon all four of them sagged against trees and against each other in a collective fit of laughter. Yes, Elsa thought, they'd definitely have to do a lot more of that sort of thing.

❅ ❅ ❅


	6. Chapter 6

❅ ❅ ❅

Elsa stepped from the seawall onto one of several ice wharves that jutted out into Arendelle Fjord. It rocked gently beneath her weight. She nearly slipped on it. Which for her, was saying something! She heard Anna yelp behind her, then a thud more felt than heard. Elsa craned about.

“Anna!”

Anna groaned, looking up at her from where she lay on the ice. “Ow. This is very slippery, you know that?” Anna dragged a finger across the ice. “I thought Eugene talked you into putting a traction surface on this.”

“He did. And I did. But...” She glanced westward toward the lowering sun. “...it melted.”

“I can tell. Maybe I should have taken Kristoff's advice.”

“Which was...?”

“Hobnail boots.”

Elsa raised a hand to her mouth and tittered. At Anna's raised eyebrow, she said, “Sorry. It's just that picturing you wearing hobnails is...amusing.”

Anna cocked her head. “Why? They're not that different from what I wore going up the North Mountain.”

“They're bulkier.”

“They don't have to be,” said a familiar male voice.

Elsa turned back around to face Prinz Eugene. She heard Anna laugh behind her.

“What?” said Eugene.

“Eugene,” said Elsa, “you look ridiculous.”

Eugene just looked back at her the way a deer looks at an oncoming sleigh. The man wore some sort of sleeveless shirt, lederhosen, and sandals. The tanned skin of his arms transitioned abruptly to pale near-white halfway between his elbows and his bare, muscular shoulders. A dark-colored, wide-brimmed hat sat on his head, a thin cord securing it under his chin.

“Ja, Prinz Eugene,” she added, “you do.”

He looked past Elsa at Anna. “Are you hurt?” he asked, apparently ignoring Elsa's comment.

“Nei,” said Anna. “I'll be fine.”

Eugene cocked his head. “I thought you didn't know how to swim.”

“I don't.”

“You know the rules. No one is allowed on the ice docks unless they know how to swim, or are wearing hobnails, preferably both. Your flats don't have hobnails.”

“You're wearing sandals,” Anna retorted.

“Hobnail sandals,” he corrected.

Anna snorted laughter.

Eugene displayed the bottom of a shoe, the hobnails gleaming in the sunlight. “Roman design,” he said, “with a few improvements. I'd say you wouldn't believe how slippery ice can be when it has a film of water over it, but I suppose you're already aware.”

“Painfully,” said Anna.

Eugene nodded. “Queen Elsa? What about you?”

“Uh...” Elsa picked up her own foot and glanced at the bottoms of her own leather flats. Then she cocked an eyebrow at Eugene.

Eugene cocked an eyebrow back.

Elsa sighed, then put her foot back down. Ice erupted around each shoe. She displayed the results, each ice shoe supporting several downward-facing icicles.

Eugene smiled. “That'll do, Your Majesty.”

Elsa flicked her fingers behind her. Anna gasped.

“Elsaaa...” said Anna. “...that's...c-c-cold!”

“Feels nice, doesn't it?” Elsa teased.

“K-k-kind of.”

Elsa winked at her sister, then returned her attention to Eugene. “Progress?”

“On time and under budget,” Eugene said confidently.

He turned to gaze up at the ship bobbing lightly in the water. It rode much higher than it usually did. That was partly because much of its cargo had been offloaded, but mostly because of the buoyancy of the substantial ice cradle supporting it. It was the next-best thing to dry-dock.

“Rapunzel's just about done with...”

A gout of fire erupted from the ship's deck, interrupting Eugene. He flinched slightly. Elsa felt the air temperature around her plummet and saw an icy film creep across the surface of the fjord and up the ship's hull.

Rapunzel's voice drifted across the breeze. “ _WHO TOLD YOU TO STOP PUMPING?!_ ” she bellowed. A few moments later, she continued, “ _You know how dangerous that is, and...STOP STARING AT MY BREASTS!!!_ ”

Elsa and Anna looked at each other and cringed.

“ _Get back to work!_ ” Rapunzel demanded. A few more moments later, Rapunzel's face appeared over the ship's railing. “Oh, nal-heratho, cousins! Eugene, would you be a dear and toss me another set of clothing?”

Eugene rummaged into the large satchel he wore by his side, pulled out a small bundle, and threw it overarmed up to Rapunzel, who caught it deftly.

“Thank-you, dearest.” She immediately began to unwind it in a flurry of off-white cloth.

“Rapunzel?” said Eugene. “Are you sure the pumpers aren't tired?”

Rapunzel tapped her fingers on the railing for a moment. “I'm pretty sure they're just distractible.” Another pause. “Don't say it!” she warned.

Eugene just chuckled. He consulted his clipboard, then glanced at the sun. “Half-hour until shift change,” he declared. Then he added, “I recommend refreshing the traction surface.”

Elsa nodded. “So noted.”

“This is taking too long!”

Elsa suppressed a cringe, then spun to face Hertogi Weselton. “Is it?” she asked, with well-practiced control.

“Ja! It is!”

“No, it isn't,” said Eugene.

Weselton's eyes narrowed. “And you...”

“Hold that thought!” said Rapunzel. She vaulted over the railing, grabbed one of the rat lines, and slid down to the ice dock. She let go abruptly, hit the ice, then slipped, landing on her backside. Her momentum carried her shrieking over the opposite edge and into the fjord.

Everyone rushed toward the side. “Cousin!” said Anna.

Rapunzel surfaced, then bobbed there, treading water. She spurted a little water out of her mouth. “Whewie! That was interesting!”

Elsa and Anna looked at each other and shrugged. Rapunzel swam a few strokes over to the dock, then jammed the fingers of her left hand into the ice. It hissed, letting off a gout of steam. She did that again with her right hand, hauling herself up a little, then yet again with the left.

“Are you putting holes in my ice?” asked Elsa.

“Hand-holds,” said Rapunzel.

“We could have tossed you a rope,” said Anna, as Rapunzel's head cleared the edge.

“This is faster,” said Rapunzel, as she pulled herself over, rolling up across the upper surface and to her feet. Water dripped off of her body, a slight wisp of steam wafting from her skin. Most of that was exposed. One strip of fabric wrapped around her bust, the upper and lower curves of her breasts quite visible. A second formed a very short skirt around her hips, the hem-line barely clearing her buttocks. Her hair hung in a water-logged ponytail tied high on the back of her head. “That was fun, actually. Maybe we could set up a water park when we're all done.”

“A water park?” said Elsa. “I have no idea what that is.”

“I'll explain later.”

“Princess!” Weselton spluttered. “You...you...you...”

“I'm what?”

“You're naked!”

“I am not,” Rapunzel retorted.

“But...”

“It's hot in there, and anything I'd wear would have bitumen all over it in moments.” She held up her still-messy hands. “See? Hence the linen muslin.”

“And no stays?!”

Rapunzel's eyes narrowed. She poked at her belly. “Feel that,” she said.

Weselton began to splutter.

“Well?” Rapunzel demanded. “Go ahead. Poke me.”

“You'd better do it,” said Elsa. She forced down the laughter that threatened to bubble up.

Weselton raised his gloved hand, index finger out, paused, then tentatively tapped Rapunzel in the abdomen.

“Harder,” said Rapunzel.

Weselton pushed, then blinked.

“Feel that? They're called abs. And they're why I don't _need_ stays. Besides, I'm going to need them to push out the baby I'm growing.”

“But that's still unbecoming! You should be ashamed of...”

“We went over this,” she interrupted. “I'm the best person for the job and this part of the operation will go much faster with me doing it.”

“No Princess, much less a _crown_ Princess should...”

Rapunzel lost it. “ _I'M WORKING, YOU MEWLING QUIM!!!_ ” she bellowed. “What part of that do you not understand?!”

“Hertogi,” said Elsa, “do your boots have hobnails?”

“Well...no. But...”

“Do you know how to swim?”

“No. But...”

Elsa pointed toward shore. “Then get off my ice dock!” she snapped.

At first, Weselton just stood there, his nostrils flaring.

“Shall I move your ship's repair priority back?” she asked.

Weselton said nothing. Instead, he simply spun on his heels and strode ungainly off the ice, every third step threatening to spill him onto his backside.

Elsa sighed. “I really dislike that man.”

“Elsa,” said Anna, “I think everyone dislikes him.”

“The thing is,” said Eugene pensively, “he wouldn't be half as annoying if he'd just relax a little. And he'd be happier, too.”

Rapunzel shook her head slowly. “Some people,” she said. Then she sighed. “Aaand I'm probably going to have to apologize for calling him a mewling quim. I hate diplomacy.”

“He did have one point, though,” said Anna. “That is an interesting outfit you're almost wearing.”

Rapunzel chuckled. Eugene chuckled. Before long, all four of them were laughing. It felt good to Elsa, really good.

❅ ❅ ❅


	7. Chapter 7

❅ ❅ ❅

Kristoff let out a low whistle. “She corners like she's on rails,” he said.

“Um,” said Anna, “isn't that because it _is_ on rails?”

Kristoff stepped off his new sleigh and considered it thoughtfully. “Well...sure. It just handles so much better than my old one.”

“What can I say?” said Elsa. “As Drottning, I can get away with sparing no expense.”

“The reduced friction coating helps,” said Rapunzel.

“The what?” said the other three, almost together.

Rapunzel sighed. “Never mind. Seriously, I'm beginning to think you three haven't been paying attention to your science lessons.”

“I haven't _had_ science lessons,” said Kristoff.

“Well, then, we'll have to fix that, won't we?”

“There you go again,” said Elsa, “trying to make my decisions for me.”

“Sorry,” said Rapunzel penitently. “But you were thinking it.”

“Well...ja,” Elsa admitted.

Kristoff stepped off the thin sheet of ice Elsa had created for their drive, and strode toward the thermal vents that kept the Valley of the Living Rock warm and mostly snow-free even in winter.

“Well?” he called. “We're here!”

“Again!” Anna added.

“The last time I was here...” said Elsa nervously.

Anna laid a hand on her shoulder. “I know. You'll be fine.”

Kristoff waited expectantly. The moments stretched out.

“Are you sure this is...” began Rapunzel.

The rocks around them began to move. At first, they just wobbled, then rocked, then abruptly rolled about before unfolding into the familiar forms of the trolls Kristoff had come to know and love since his childhood days.

“Heilsa!” he said. “We're back!”

“So soon?” said Bulda.

Several of the other trolls blurted various questions and comments.

Rapunzel yelped. Everyone looked at her.

“I thought we told you they were trolls,” said Anna.

“They...they...they're silicon-based life forms!” Rapunzel shrieked. “That's incredible!”

Elsa groaned.

“I have no idea what that means,” said Kristoff.

“You see,” said Rapunzel, “all...well, nearly all...life on Earth is carbon-based. These beings are...oh, never mind. It's just that it's supposed to be physiologically impossible! I thought 'Valley of the Living Rock' was a metaphor.”

“Uh,” said Anna, “just go with it.”

“So, anyway,” said Kristoff, “we have a couple of questions for...” He broke off, then sighed. “Rapunzel, do you _have_ to poke them?”

“It's just so _interesting_! Their crystals are in a continual state of realignment! This could revolutionize...”

“Please don't,” Kristoff interrupted. “As I was saying, is Grand Pabbie napping again?”

No sooner had he asked the question, then the familiar form of Grand Pabbie rolled through the assembly, finally unfolding a few paces in front of Kristoff. That troll sure knew how to make an entrance.

Pabbie looked from Kristoff to Anna to Elsa to Rapunzel, then back to Kristoff. It seemed the troll wasn't sure where to begin. “Well,” said Kristoff, “it worked.”

Pabbie blinked, then looked at Anna. “An act of true love?”

“So, how'd it go?” said Bulda. “Was it true love's first kiss?” She bumped her eyebrows.

“Um,” said Anna, “not exactly.” Then she added, “actually, not even close.”

Kristoff reached over and gave Anna's hand a squeeze, then nodded to her.

Anna took a deep breath, and said, “It went like this...” She continued with her own account of what had happened after leaving the trolls several days before, and culminating with Elsa thawing Arendelle.

Kristoff watched the faces of everyone assembled, their eyes widening, jaws dropping, tears welling up. When Anna had finished, only the soft hissing of steam vents broke the silence.

Then, “That is _so_ sweet!” said Bulda. She dabbed a tear from her eye, then blew her nose on her garment.

Anna smiled. “I love my sister,” she said simply, smiling at Elsa.

“How do you feel?” Pabbie asked.

“That's why we're here,” said Anna. “Oh, I feel fine. Better than fine. But...”

“We think there were,” said Kristoff, “a couple of...what was that word you used, Rapunzel...right, side effects.”

“Go on,” said Pabbie.

“Elsa told me what happened while I was unconscious that day, back when we were girls,” said Anna, “and what you did for me, for us. But the thing is, since I thawed out, I remember my life before the accident. I remember how things actually happened, with Elsa's magic and everything.”

Pabbie cocked his head. “You do?”

Anna nodded. “And that white streak in my hair is gone. Rapunzel said she felt a knot in my soul when she met me, and now she says that's gone, too.”

“We have no idea what that means,” said Kristoff.

“Hmmm,” said Pabbie. He looked at Rapunzel. “Rapunzel, I presume?”

She nodded.

“Would it be an imposition for you to share what you know?”

“Not at all,” said Rapunzel. “But it's complicated.” She paused, then sighed. “Alright, I don't know how to explain it any better than that. Except that it's something I can feel through other dimensions of space-time. And it's not always easy to describe how things feel, especially when it doesn't exactly have a corollary to anything we know from the three dimensions of space the rest of us normally perceive.

“I think you somehow limited the ability of Anna's soul to navigate along the Time Axis. When she froze and then thawed out again, whatever it was you did was undone and now she can navigate properly and re-observe events as they actually happened. The thing is, I have a feeling that tying a knot in her soul wasn't necessary at all.”

Elsa sighed. “That's what she told us this morning. And it doesn't make any more sense now than it did then.”

“Actually, it does,” said Pabbie.

“Uh...it does?” said Anna.

Pabbie nodded. “Anna, the soul is a mysterious thing, misunderstood by many. You see, the soul and the mind are one. They are bound to the body and through it, they perceive the world. The connection between them is complex and what happens to the one always affects the other. Knowledge of those effects is uncertain. While it's possible I erred too far on the side of caution, the consequences could have been severe.

“Rapunzel.” Pabbie extended a hand toward Rapunzel's head. “May I? I am interested in knowing how you felt Anna's soul.”

“Um...just don't do anything.” Rapunzel leaned down.

Pabbie touched her forehead, and almost immediately jerked away. “You...you...you have...”

“I call it Sun-blood. It's the shards of three stars. It occupies separate dimensions of space and with it, I can...well, I can do a lot of things, including this.” She extended a hand, palm up, and a gout of fire erupted around it, bathing her hand in an undulating ball of something that looked both like and unlike fire. After several moments, it vanished.

“That's remarkable!” Pabbie exclaimed. “Do you know what this means?”

“Besides that I have to be careful not to frighten children and dignitaries, go out of my way to keep from accidentally setting things on fire, and that I have to eat a lot more than anyone else?”

Pabbie shook his head. “You have been chosen.”

“For what?”

“We don't know. But whatever it is, it will be remarkable. You are destined to do great things.”

“That's good to know...I think.” Then, “So, do my cousins get to do remarkable things, too?”

“Their destinies are tightly bound to yours.”

“Then it's a good thing we like each other, isn't it?”

Anna and Elsa both giggled.

“Elsa,” said Pabbie, “do you remember what I told you the day your parents brought Anna to us?”

Elsa nodded. “You said there was great beauty and great danger in my power.”

Pabbie nodded. “And?”

Elsa sighed. “I...we...focused on the danger.”

Pabbie sighed. “That's unfortunate.”

“I didn't want to hurt Anna...again. I was terrified that I would. We all were. And now...” She looked at Anna. “...well, it still worries me.”

“You'll be fine,” said Anna.

“And that,” said Pabbie, “is how you will, as your sister puts it, be fine. Love is the most powerful force in the Universe. But it's also one of the most slippery. You have both experienced that power in very personal ways.”

Anna and Elsa smiled sheepishly at each other.

“But,” said Bulda, “you and Kristoff are still gonna get married, aren't you?”

Anna and Kristoff looked nervously at each other.

“That all depends on them,” said Elsa.

Kristoff suddenly felt all eyes on him. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

Rapunzel cleared her throat. “Kristoff? Maybe you should talk to my husband. Because the way I see it, you two have a lot in common.”

“We do?” said Kristoff. Just what was she doing?

Rapunzel nodded. “You're both twitching spasmodically over the idea of marrying a Prinzessin.”

Kristoff blinked.

“Oh, don't worry,” she said casually, “you'll get over it. Eugene did. Actually, I think he was more afraid of Papa than he was of being married to me. Not that you're afraid of Elsa...are you?”

“Well, no. It's just...uh...”

“It's a big change and that's what scares you?”

Kristoff blinked. Wow, she was good. “Basicially, ja.”

Rapunzel chuckled. “Fortunately, we all know a thing or two about fear.” She paused. “I know! In the event that they do get married, all y'all should be invited!”

“All y'all?” said Anna.

“Sure. Why not? I mean, they're Kristoff's family, aren't they?”

“Wait,” said Elsa, “not that I don't appreciate the help, but aren't we drifting just a little off-topic?”

“Yes, your Majesty,” said Pabbie, “I'm afraid we are.”

She nodded. “Let me see if I understand all this correctly. You were afraid Anna's injury might damage her soul, so you prevented her from seeing her past as it really was. When she thawed out and revived, what was left of that injury, and what you'd done to address it, was undone. She'll be fine. We're all destined for great things. And we should all relax, remember that love overcomes fear, and get on with our lives. Is that about right?”

Pabbie nodded. “You've all taken the first steps into a larger world. I won't presume to imagine how your lives might have been different had you and your parents made different choices beginning the day you came to us. That way leads to madness. The past can be just as complicated as the future and the future is always in motion. You must find your own paths and learn to walk them yourselves.”

“I understand. And thank-you. If you don't mind, we all have duties to attend to.”

“Do you have to go?” said Bulda. “You just arrived.”

“I'm afraid so.”

“Do we get some hugs first?”

Elsa smiled. It took longer than Kristoff might have expected for everyone to hug everyone else. The sun had vanished behind the valley's rim by the time Sven pulled the sleigh and its passengers into the tree line on the way back to the citadel. Kristoff chuckled to himself. It seemed that just when he thought his life couldn't be more interesting, someone surprised him. He supposed he didn't want to be bored anyway.

❅ ❅ ❅


End file.
